Adirondack Dawn Canoe

Gallery: Man & NaturePosted August 29, 2011228 views6 comments

While camping on an Adirondack island last weekend, I was happy to see this pre-sunrise glow, but I overslept after a late night at the campfire, so I had no time to paddle to my planned sunrise location. Instead, I quickly set up right at my camp site. Rather than take time to move my canoe, I figured I would just shoot over it, since I wanted a high perspective to keep this large rock from covering up the colorful reflection.

I posted the resulting panorama crop in the Landscape Gallery, but this is the whole frame. (Of course, in post-processing, I found out that I liked the canoe in the scene, but it's not all there.)

QUESTION: Does the fact that the whole canoe is not in the frame detract too much from this scene?

Thanks.

Canon 50D
Sigma 17-70
Two exposures, 0.166 sec. and 0.4 sec. @ f/16; ISO 100
Tripod and 2-sec. timer
hand-blended in CS5

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Carol Nichols on August 29, 2011 at 9:59 PM

Wayne it doesn't matter to me that the entire boat is not in the scene. In fact, I would be curious to see what this image looks like with some of the boat cropped off on the bottom??? I guess I tend to think that the boat is drawing my eyes down and out of the frame. The image you posted in the Landscape Gallery is my favorite of the two. That one is really stunning.

Registered on November 7, 2007, 161 Posts, 1420 Comments

Comment posted by Anand Narayanan on August 30, 2011 at 12:00 AM

Very inviting ! Reminds of a Wordsworth poem we were taught at school- The stolen boat

I think i prefer the landscape version, however this is pretty neat as well. This may sound trivial and not entirely under your control, but i wish the interior of the canoe were a little less cluttered. Just the oars and the basic shape of the canoe would be easier on the eye.

Registered on October 25, 2009, 110 Posts, 835 Comments

Comment posted by Charlie Baugh on August 30, 2011 at 12:12 PM

I like your work Wayne. This does seems strange for you. I would say that IMO the canoe does not enhance the scene. I'm wondering what the lines reflected in the water to the left of the rock and canoe are a reflection of? They look somewhat like overhead power lines. The darkness of the scene would work perfectly as a scene of the sunrise, but for the canoe it seems quite dark.

Registered on April 18, 2011, 329 Posts, 1985 Comments

Comment posted by Wayne Jones on August 30, 2011 at 8:58 PM

Thanks everyone.
CAROL -- Thanks for the crop idea - I will certainly try that!
ANAND -- Not a trivial comment at all. If I intended to photograph the canoe, I would have removed my fishing tackle. I'll remember that if I shoot a scene that includes my boat in the future, but it sort of got included by accident this time.
CHARLIE -- Thanks for mentioning the lines on the water. It never occurred to me that anyone would mistake them for reflections, but I'm sure there are lots of folks who are not familiar with fresh water lakes and ponds. If you look at the large image closely, I think you can see the lines on the water are not reflections. Common pond scum (usually floating algae or cyanobacteria) is usually invisible in pristine waters like this, but it piled up in thin lines because the water was so still that night, with a very slight breeze. It's the same stuff that paints those horizontal lines on the rocks as the water level falls. Are those lines what you find "strange" about this image?

Registered on April 18, 2007, 953 Posts, 6435 Comments

Comment posted by Charlie Baugh on August 30, 2011 at 9:20 PM

I guess that is what they are, Wayne. Thanks for taking the time to explain.

Registered on April 18, 2011, 329 Posts, 1985 Comments

Comment posted by Eva McDermott on September 1, 2011 at 9:18 AM

The canoe serves as a good lead in Wayne. I love the rich dawn color and quiet water.

Registered on January 4, 2009, 1015 Posts, 13229 Comments