Beachstones

Very beautiful! I like the blue tones of the stones and the fresh green colors of the plants. Excellent details also.

Hi Vance, This is very, very nice! Great comp, wonderful color and detail. I really like this...

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

This one is great Vance very very appealing and the blue green colour combo and the weighting of blue and green work superbly well. Love the one patterned stone as well.

love it, vance. framed very nicely, and i really like the position of the uniquely cut stone. the shape of the greens is a delight

SWEET! Beautifully composed and the colors are gorgeous.

The greens against the steel gray stones are a beautiful contrast Vance. Beautiful comp especially with the inclusion of the "different stone". Well seen and I can only imagine how beautiful this would look printed large.

Very artistic, Vance.

Really, really nice. Not just the different shapes and textures, but the color and detail too. Hope you got some halibut while there.

Beautiful mix of colors and comp. Very 3-d feel. It feels a little heavy on the left, with more of the green there. I scroll cropped down from the top to below the top couple of plants and think it might look a little more balanced. The new format may not be to your liking though. Love it

Wow, wow, wow! Unbelievable, Vance!!

Wow this just put a big smile right on my face. I am absolutely loving this Vance Gese. Stunning work

I love this intimate photo...stunning colors and shapes, and the rock with the white lines is in the perfect spot. Gorgeous shot!

WOW, Vance! This is really amazing. What a great way to focus on the details and pull out a stellar image.

I like this comp Vance. The color contrast is very nice.

Love the colors, shapes, and textures here Vance. Beautiful intimate portrait.

Excellent composition, Vance - I love me a good intimate scene, and the placement of those blooms coming up from the stones are perfect. I love the lone striped stone being the obvious focal point, at the lower-right third.

My only suggestion would be to push the blue up / yellow down in the large upper-right stone, so it matches the rest of them - I think that would assist the striped stone in being the lone different one, and make it an even stronger compositional element. (If you do this, maybe also tweak the small lower-center stone that is also a bit yellowish).

Very nice imaging, Vance. Comp, colors and 4x5 approach all work well for me.

This is too good, Vance.

Large format film delight!

The mix of greens and blues work beautifully. Really nice image...

Perfect in my mind Vance!! Such a simple comp delivers huge results here.. The striking greens cut the stones perfectly and that one stone keeps my attention great as well.. Nicely seen and great capture!

Beautiful intimate image. Great colors and shapes.

Killer shot Vance, man I love the green stars and the way they pop from the gray/blue stones. Fantastic stuff man!

Awesome find.. very nice arrangement created by nature..

Oh man, I'm loving this! Very nicely composed and it has so much to enjoy and explore. Really, really nice Vance.

Excellent shot

Stellar shot, Vance. Could you quickly explain the advantages of the Extachrome? Did you have to consider bellows extensions in this one already?

Fantastic!!! Love the colors, shapes, lines and comp. This is just perfect.

The colours in this look really great together Vance, I really like your framing too. The pebble with the white lines through it is the icing on the cake for me.

Gary.

Vance, this really has a Zen feel to it that I find attractive. The sharpness and composition are fantastic.

I love the simplicity of this. Looking at the rocks reminded me of the rocks at Homer Spit, Alaska. Thanks for sharing

Dude! Find some funding for a book!!! I will contribute!

Better'n' a bought one. Just beautiful, Vance.

Wonder how often we walk across images like this without looking down- an outstanding capture- well seen and beautifully composed

Hey, thanks everyone for all the great comments. Very, very much appreciated. I did crop the 4x5 scan a bit but this still represents about 85% of the 4x5. I really appreciate the suggestions on cropping and modifying some of the colors in the stones; will consider these.

Andreas, my choice of Ektachrome was basically what I had been using for several years at the time; I know some folks use different films for different types of images. I have tried that off and on for years but feel that getting to know one film works best, at least for me anyway. I use Provia now and am pretty happy with it. I did have to consider bellows extension adding I believe 1-2 stops additional exposure (can't find my notes from this time). My method is pretty simple (you probably know all this but here goes): I know the focal length of my lens in inches (8inch for the 210mm). Let's say the bellows extension measured with a measuring tape I carry is 13inches for example. Convert the inches to f-stops. Hence for an 8inch lens, at 11inches bellows extension, one would add one stop (ie f8 to f11, the difference is one stop), at 16inches extension, one would add 2 stops (ie f8 to f16 is a difference of 2 stops). So for my 13inches extension, would add about 1.5 stops additional exposure. Works fairly well.
Thanks again everyone.

Nice work

Thanks for your explanation, Vance. I never used bellows extension so far, but as I also like to shoot abstracts like this one I might run into it sooner or later. Your description is clear and easy to understand (although I will have to stick with my metric measuring) and I will use it when it's necessary. At this point I carry Velvia 50 and Provia 100 with me and I'm glad to hear that you're happy with Provia at this point as well. Thanks again and keep the great 4x5 shots coming.

Beautiful image Vance, I really like the contrast of plants and stones here. The star like stone is an excellent point in the image.

Wonderful comp, Vance, those green plants add so much to the image, nice eye.

This is wonderful, Vance! I love how the rich green growth works with the cool colors of the rest. Good eye!

Signature Vance! Fabulous. I can keep admiring at this image for a long long time.

Stunning work Vance! Those little plants and the symmetry the exhibit is marvelous.

A stunning image , so clean and simple yet so compelling !!

I missed this one Vance. Fantastic!