A walk around the lake

[Rita]

Having had a mad work schedule, being sick, and us having a lot of rain there hasn't been much opportunity for photography over the las few months. Finally got out this morning for a walk around a lake with my camera. Here are a few shots I took along the way.

Any feedback is always gratefully accepted.


1.

2. I thought the 2 branches made a nice frame for the structure but no sure it has the same effect in the image as the way I saw it


3.

4.

[Shadowman]

Nice captures.

[Geoff F]

Basically OK. #2 could do with a bit of rotation.

Personally I'm never keen to force natural scenes into strict composition rules so I would have cropped #3 differently; probably 4 x 5 ratio or even square. And I wonder about showing just a fraction more at the top of #4 (or maybe less?) but possibly you were forced into that current scene.

[Brownbear]

Hi Rita,

I'm especially fond of the first image for the composition (framing), and gorgeous sky. If it were my image I'd crop it square-like, just before the beautiful fir tree and its reflection. For me this places more attention on your framing, and eliminates the tree mass of branches on the right.

I like the creativity of the framing in the 2nd image but something about it doesn't work for me, so I'll let someone with more experience advise on this and the others.

Yes, the weather here has been dreadful! Here's hoping it improves soon!

[Rita]

Thank you John.

Geoff, appreciate the feedback. Here are the images again with your suggestions. I do like the square crop of the leaf much better than the way I had it and I totally missed the rotation for #2 originally.

[Rita]

Hi Christina,

Thanks for your comments. Is this the crop you had in mind?

[Brownbear]

Hi Rita,

I like your crop, a lot but the one I had in mind cropped the image just a bit more on the right... just before the darker fir tree and it's reflection. I like this crop because of the sense of the big sky (more height) and I like that fir tree. And that may just be because I love beautiful skies, ie; personal preference.

I'm sorry that I can demonstrate with a crop because I'm unable to copy/download images from to my computer.

Hi Christina,

Thanks for your comments. Is this the crop you had in mind?

[Rita]

Ok Christina, closer to the fir tree it is.

[Brownbear]

Thank you for indulging my vision. I prefer your last crop because with this one you have also cropped a wee bit off of the top of that beautiful sky? So if it is to maintain an aspect ratio your crop works best for me.

Ok Christina, closer to the fir tree it is.

[Nicks Pics]

I like your shots Rita. You did a good job of finding artistic views on what was probably ordinary- looking scenes. Personally the first crop of the lake scene looks more unique than the other version (s), because you can see both right and left sides of the lake, and it gives you a bigger view of that beautiful sky.

On the leaf image, my senses are telling me the leaf and stick should be on the opposite side of the frame, (based on original crop) but maybe not, I can't tell since there isn't extra space on the right to experiment with.

[IzzieK]

Rita -- I like the original of #1 better than the crops..(Sorry Christina) because the second and last crop seems to be too limited in the look-see department. #2 I like the straightening of the shot better. #3 leaf, I like both versions. #4 I like the second edit -- it has more to show. A little bit more room to the left would have been better or show more of the angle of the fence. I like the texture of the moss though. My favourite of all is #1 -- without the crop.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Rita, very nice shots

Lovely lake scene in #1. I wouldn't crop it from RHS so much because IMO you lost the feeling of vastness in the image by cropping it so much. I would crop it from RHS just a little bit to eliminate the very high branches (I can show you an edit if you want) because they are a bit dominating. I like your last crop (Christina's suggestion) too as a different scene , but I wouldn't leave so much sky in that crop ,because IMO it doesn't add to the scene, I would crop the image above the tree on the left in that image, this would put the horizon nearly to the centre and it woul be a nice image with reflections.

#2 is very nice too, If it was mine, I would reduce the brightness( or may be highlights) of the water just a bit for a better look.

[Rita]

Nick, thank you for your feedback. I am going to play with the crop of the leaf some more this afternoon

Izzie, the fence was just this little bit of what I have in the pic. I loved the moss on it so my attempt was to try and make it
look like it was on an angle and also look like it was longer than it was. Might go back and play with this idea some more

Binnur, thanks for commenting. Please feel free to have a go at the crop, I don't mind one bit, I usually find things easier to grasp when I see them I think you could be onto something for #2, I will try that later as well.

[Brownbear]

It seems I'm in the minority but I love this image so I managed to figure out how to download it to crop and show my view... I burned the top clouds in the sky so they were a little darker (I love the lines of these clouds), and I lightened the horizontal clouds and trees...



Rita... I love the original image too, and I've learned that all these opinions including mine often come down to personal preference.

[bnnrcn]

Here is the crop Rita

[IzzieK]

Looks better Christina...just another point of view and the original has a lot of window opportunity to show different cropping ideas.

It seems I'm in the minority but I love this image so I managed to figure out how to download it to crop and show my view... I burned the top clouds in the sky so they were a little darker (I love the lines of these clouds), and I lightened the horizontal clouds and trees...



Rita... I love the original image too, and I've learned that all these opinions including mine often come down to personal preference.

[Rita]

Binnur, thank you for showing the crop you had in mind, I do like it It almost gives a sense of movement to the clouds, if you know what I mean.

Christina, thanks for showing your view. You are right when you say that opinions come down to personal preference but I always feel that lots of eyes are better than just my 2. With input from others and what they see it can greatly help my own vision and learning process

[Mike Buckley]

These are so nice, Rita. Perhaps your best set.

I prefer Binnur's crop of the first image and original of the dead leaf. Regarding the fourth image, Geoff mentioned a square crop, which was also my first inclination. Try the following on for size:

[Rita]

Mike, thank you so much. Coming from you I will take this as a great compliment
This square crop represents far more of what I was trying to portray.

[csa mt]

[Lovely lake scene in #1. I wouldn't crop it from RHS so much because IMO you lost the feeling of vastness in the image by cropping it so much. I would crop it from RHS just a little bit to eliminate the very high branches (I can show you an edit if you want) because they are a bit dominating.]

I agree 100% with this suggestion.

Very beautiful photos, thanks for sharing!