Winter is coming

[Bobobird]

Nothing compared to the exotic and exciting places you guys post. Just a very ordinary and small neighbourhood park.

As most know I have a hard time "seeing" a landscape. Hard as I try it never comes together. These appear reasonable to me but are probably not.

Comments welcomed and appreciated as always.

1.


2.

[Mike Buckley]

Some of the best images can be captured within a mile of our own homes, sometimes in our own yards.

In the first one, notice that the foreground leaves on the right side stand out in several ways from the rest of the image, causing a distraction. Try making the image about the pattern of the trees. To do so, crop on the right to eliminate the foreground leaves; crop on the bottom just below the second tree trunk from the right; crop on the left to produce a pleasing aspect ratio.

Your last image is like most of my images in that it's a reasonable attempt but doesn't work for me. I think I would like it more if it didn't have so much foreground, perhaps because it's out of focus. The large, wooden fence pole is also a distraction, mostly because the dark green tree behind it makes it too distracting.

[Bobobird]

Thanks - got it. Next time less mistakes.

[Donald]

Nothing to add to what the man from DC said. Covers it all.

[Bobobird]

Thanks Donald. Just have to persistent I suppose. One day.....

[ajohnw]

I sense wide angle use in the tree shot. I make use of the equivalent of around 80mm in 35mm terms rather a lot. Taking the trees for instance the results will be that they look more naturally spaced. In a shot like that I would also prefer to include the tops.

The lady one is more difficult - telephoto?. I would just try to crop something that looks ok out of shot like that. For web us and careful focusing it's often possible to crop 1024 pixels by something or the other directly out of the full frame and use that. Even smaller than that really.

This may illustrate the point about the use of 80mm. It was taken at around 40mm on a Pen where the crop factor is 2 - a record photo mostly. The scale and distance in the photo's tends to look entirely different.






John

[Bobobird]

Thanks John, appreciated the info. Will try that but my problem is that a landscape is always an afterthought since the primary purpose of my outings is birds or bugs. So all that is available lens-wise is the 70-300 tele.

[Mike Buckley]

So all that is available lens-wise is the 70-300 tele.

Ahem. Take more than one lens.

[Bobobird]

Thanks Mike. I used to (last year) but bad back and doc orders are no backpacks. Actually he frowns on the camera carrying as well but...

[ajohnw]

If you using an APS sensor and want something on the cheap and small an old/recent 50mm standard lens and an adapter might be worth considering. I say recent old as I believe coatings improved in later more complicated film cameras.

No comments on my shot. I'm more into photographing things than scenes so probably need some too.
If I made some I would probably suggest cropping some of the distance out of it so that the figures and nearer tree trunks could be bigger in a pc screen sized shot. The trees would then show a lot more detail. I have problems framing shots and generally sort that out when I crop them. I remember buying my 1st 28mm wide angle lens and then spending 2 weeks driving round various parts of europe taking lots of shots with it. Back home the results were disappointing so I am probably a bit of an extremist about trying to shoot with 80mm equivalent or there abouts when I can. The focal length is another variable in any shot as well.

Silly me saying wide angle - I should have said telephoto as it's crunched up.

Anyway good scenes depend on the viewer really. Tastes vary.

John

[Bobobird]

Thanks John, apologies for not commenting on your shot as I thought you were giving me an example of how to go about doing trees. For what it is worth it has a good "out for a walk" feel to it and the 2 persons add a point of interest. That is what I tried in #2 which otherwise would have been just a vast expanse of vegetation.

#1 came about when taking a shot of some acorns. Said to myself, hey those lined up trees look nice, lets take a shot. Stepped back as far as I could but ..... Not a good shot either.