Evening Bliss

[selig1656]

RSF_2632 edited by Raymond Friedman, on Flickr

Pic2
RSF_2629 edited by Raymond Friedman, on Flickr

[mugge]

I do like the first image. It is a shame that the tree right hand corner has been chopped off.
Cheers Ole

[Geoff F]

With the first image I wonder about a crop from the bottom and right side, making the smaller left hand tree into the main attraction?

You have a lot of sensor dust on your camera and I'm afraid there is no simple cheap removal option. A professional clean is the only way forward. Some UK companies are offering this sort of service for around £50 plus carriage costs but prices are usually a little cheaper in the US.

[escape]

Hi Raymond. I took the liberty of cropping your second image. I also did some tinkering with it. For me, the original had a lovely sky but an uninteresting arrangement of trees. I was trying to achieve a sense of balance with the crop. Consider different crop possibilities for the image to achieve balance. Just my take.

[DanK]

Raymond,

Concerning dust: you do have a great deal. How visible it is depends on the background in that particular photo. However, I circled most that I could see:



I clean my own, but it's a little intimidating at first, and this sensor is so dirty that I would echo Geoff's suggestion that you get a shop to do it if there is a good one near you that will do it for a reasonable price.

Re cropping: I find landscapes one of the hardest types of photographs to do. I see something really pretty, snap a photo, and then find that the photo doesn't work well once it's reduced to a rectangle on screen or paper. Often, to make it work, you have to think about the whole rectangle, not just the part that attracted you. In this case, I think the first is much more successful in that respect than the second, even though the second has a gorgeous sky. What Daniel is suggesting is one way to get a balance and a framing that he considers more appealing. there are others. It's up to you.

A few years ago I took a photo of the end of a lake in western MA in the fall. It was sort of a grab shot; there were other people walking with me, so I didn't have a lot of time to fiddle with composition. I was lucky: I got what was MOSTLY a good composition, but there was one big problem: a woman walking away from the camera in an ugly pink sweater, surrounded by greenery that I wanted to keep. Fortunately, with a lot of editing work, I was able to get rid of her, but with her in the picture, it was reduced to an unappealing snapshot.

Dan

[Chataignier]

I do so agree with Dan. Landscapes are the easiest to take and the hardest to make worthwhile. So often what the eye sees and what the camera sees are so disappointingly different. Panoramas help a bit, taking in more of the critical horizon but even then what looks splendid on the day often disappoints as a photo.

Do we have any landscape specialists on the forum willing to share their secrets ?

As for sensor cleaning, you can buy little kits with solvent impregnated "brushes" that work fine on my camera, but then hybrids, with no mirror in way, are easier to clean.

[selig1656]

Interesting and thank you

[selig1656]

True it is more than needed for a cleaning as weather and shooting races under all circumstnces has probly lead to part of this, thank all for the notice and comments.