Sedona Subway

Gallery: LandscapePosted August 11, 2011283 views7 comments

While Zion's "subway" is much more famous, this section of the West Fork of Oak Creek is stunning in it's own right. The West Fork is also a hot-bed for landscape photographers, yet most of them crowd within the first couple miles of the trailhead. My goal on this trip was to try to make images that I had never seen from anyone else, and this part of the subway with the complex reflections and ferns growing out of the sandstone walls really caught my eye. I tried to emphasize the lone green fern to juxtapose against the see of red sandstone. Coming out of the raw, I thought the sandstone looked too drab, so I did push the reds up here. It represents what I felt when I stood there, but is not altogether true to what was actually there, let me know if it is over the top! I also tried to keep the highlights very under control, while maintaining detail in the shadows and not losing too much contrast. I feel like processing has been a constant struggle for me, and that I may have finally "made it" to a higher level in that respect, but I will not know without feedback....so that said, any and all comments and critiques are very much valued!

Canon T1i @ 18mm
ISO 100
f/22
3.2 seconds
Polarizer? Can't remember

Raw converted in Lightroom, adjustments in CS5

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Floris van Breugel on August 11, 2011 at 6:20 PM

Beautiful image of a wonderful area, Jake. It is indeed a lot more saturated than I recall it being, but I don't think it 'feels' too unnatural if I don't think about that

. While I understand and appreciate the composition with the fern in the upper left, as far as visual balance goes I prefer a 4x5 vertical crop of the right hand side of the image. The current framing pulls my eyes into too many different directions, and as a result does not feel very cohesive.

Registered on December 19, 2008, 306 Posts, 4840 Comments

Comment posted by Nick Bristol on August 11, 2011 at 7:57 PM

This does look like a great place. I have never seen it in person, but I can say that the colors look pretty natural to me. I too can understand the comp and your feeling with the fern, but I also agree with Floris about it. I like the 4x5 crop idea from the right side too. I can say that I do like this comp better in the large version than I do the small one. Maybe in a larger print this would as it is. Either way, this is quite nice Jake.

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

Registered on February 1, 2004, 752 Posts, 14140 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Teller on August 11, 2011 at 8:27 PM

I agree with the comment that the eye is drawn to two different places. I think the image would be good with out the fern so the eye would be drawn in to the image by the curve on the left. the other would be make the fern and rock the main focus of the image. I see a lot of potential in this image.

Registered on August 23, 2010, 1162 Posts, 6692 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on August 11, 2011 at 10:06 PM

The shapes, angles, and textures here are all quite nice, Jake. Hope it never gets as popular as Zion's Subway though.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments

Comment posted by Jake Case on August 11, 2011 at 10:35 PM

Thanks everyone for the compliments and for suggesting a 4x5 crop, I actually played around with that as I was wondering about the visual balance myself, and will definitely take that suggestion into consideration if I take this image further. I will almost play around with saturation as Floris said it looked a little over saturated.

Registered on December 13, 2010, 38 Posts, 167 Comments

Comment posted by Doug Koepsel on August 12, 2011 at 11:18 AM

Jake, This is a neat spot in West Fork. I like the fern in the image. Two considerations may be to lighten the shadowed areas above and to the right of the fern, and maybe crop a little from the bottom to make this more of a pano.

Registered on April 1, 2010, 196 Posts, 1592 Comments

Comment posted by Rick Goldwasser on August 14, 2011 at 11:04 AM

I like this one Jake, the fern and the saturation are not issues to me. I might like to see the overall brightness brought down a bit to give me more of the feeling of being down in a canyon. I have never been here - lived less than an hour from it for over 4 years and never seen it

Registered on May 10, 2009, 127 Posts, 970 Comments