Cascade Spire

I'm as guilty of the next guy of chasing sky action, but I agree that this really sets off that spire. And what a spire. It's hard to tell scale. How large is it? The sun adds nice warmth that you mention.

Thanks John - I think its about 20-25 feet on the right (short) side. Twice that on the long side.

Geez, Floris-when you use the word 'favorite' you know how tough it is to say anything critical.
Never stopped me, though
Honesty, the comp is too split for me. The tree corner yanks my eye big time, and the sun just blinds me, as does the flare.
The rhs is great, but nothing connects me in the photo to the lhs. I love the idea behind the shot, it's obviously a tough one to pull off--just doesn't quite get there for me.

Gorgeous image Floris! Love the glow and light! The spire is truly magnificent!

Hey Stan, no worries. The sun is supposed to blind you - it does that when you look straight at it I like the split, for several reasons. It forces you to look at the distant hills and horizon, which conveys a feeling of serenity and vast sense of wilderness. And because of the disparate elements there is no one spot to "rest your eyes", you have to keep looking around. It's not a leading lines to the finishing point kind of scene. You have to work, move your eyes, and explore with no direction like you would if you were actually there. Look left, look right, look at the distant hills, get blinded by the sun, feel the warmth, think holy sh*t that's a big rock, and wow these pine trees smell fantastic.. boy do I love being outside! That's precisely what I like about it. It's the kind of picture that I have to keep looking at, not one where I see it, get it, and am done with it. Another way of thinking about it is that I didn't want the picture to be about the sun, or the spire, or the trees. I wanted it to be about the feeling of being there, outside, in the wilderness. This experience was framed by all these elements, but it wasn't about any one of them in particular. So if you're looking for a connection between the left and right halves of the image, I would say, the connection is in the feeling of being outside.

Just wanted to explain the method behind the madness... maybe it was more helpful for me than you - I actually found it quite helpful to have to articulate those thoughts in writing, so for that, thank you!

But, perhaps you'd like this one more? I found it rather too simple, but as a pure study in form and light, I do like it: vertical composition

I love the warm light and the glow here. I think you captured the scene very well and also did a good job here in this one. Well processed, too....but speaking of favorites....I'm a little bit with Stan on this one, but still I think it's a great shot, but I wouldn't consider this a favorite of yours...but on the other side, the longer I look at it the more impact this image has on me......though it's not one of my favorite of yours it's still a beautiful and well executed image and you captured the feeling of the moment very well

Thanks for your response, Floris. Of course, my first instinct was to crop, which ends up looking like your linked shot--but it felt like it was missing something--which is why i said "love the idea (of expanding the vision) but its tough to pull off..."
I completely understand your explanation--the only problem is that you of course had the benefit of being there, so your memory of the warmth etc helps you connect the dots, the viewer doesn't have that benefit.

Actually, the comp doesn't puzzle me that much, the only thing that really threw me was why you allowed flare into the shot (theres some pretty noticeable lens flare even at the bottom) Im pretty sure you could have eliminated that if you wanted to--so why didn't you want to?

Not sure what you mean about the flare Stan. Aside from the the flare associated with the sunstar (which would be impossible to remove), there's a little loss of contrast and extra warmth on the branch in the top left, but other than that I've removed the lens flare (using 3 other exposures). I liked the effect on the top left branch because it makes it stand out less. By the way, without that branch, the sky felt too open and blank, hence the inclusion.

Beautiful and unique. I love the spire with its twisted layers and rigid upright thrust. That really speaks to the power of the forces that shaped this landscape. The sweet light is a nice contrast to the stone

I appreciate the dialogue about the image between you and Stan, I have to say I much prefer the linked image from a purely compositional point of view. I tend to like simpler, cleaner images (my last post is an exception) and the linked image I think hits has all the important elements in the scene, to my eye. I do understand your first response to Stan, the idea of getting a viewer to become part of the image, and it is a much harder thing to do but a worthy goal. For me I like the story on the right, the shape and texture of the spire; the warm light on the rocks; the nice diagonal shadow line; the little pine tree growing out of the rock with the dead trunk and roots in front; and the beautiful blue sky and distant view to the mountains. Great work Floris!

Love the conversation between the sun and the spire with the tree branches listening in. I definitely vote for a bright sun being . . . bright.

I agree with Stan, the RHS is just excellent, If it were me, I will try to use the RHS with different angle, using the line separating
light and shadow on the right as leading line with tree and that long rock as BG.
Nice image though.

Fine warm tones.

Carol

Love it Floris!

I really liked your explanation of why you choose to shoot it the way you did. I had a similar thoughts but wouldn't have been able to articulate them nearly as well.

If I was never able to get outside again, I'd much prefer to view images like this, as they remind me of what its actually like to be outside. So much photography today has become more about making everything perfect that it almost looks cgi to me and in turns make me think more about the processing/computer work than it does about the subject matter.

Keep up the great work!

You never shy away from the bright light and the feel of this one is also inspiring. The sharp rock is an unusual find.

Thanks for posting, again.

Great location and light. My only nit would be that bit of tree sticking in from the ilc - it's such a small piece that it looks like a mistake. As it is, I'd prefer to see more of those branches or none at all. Hope that makes sense.

I really like your work, Floris. You know I do. However, this one just isn't working for me. The composition just doesn't flow, and the sunstar looks really blown out. It honestly looks like an outtake to me. I think this one might fall into the category of being an image that speaks to you personally, but doesn't necessarily resonate with others.

Hey folks, I appreciate the honest opinions. I really do. All the things mentioned I did think about carefully while composing and processing the scene, and I still stand by my choices. For the sake of conversation, my thoughts:

Regarding the branches in the upper left - any bigger, and I found them too distracting, and without them, the flow was broken because of the empty space in the upper left. They also add the feeling of being in the forest, looking out over the incredible view.

Regarding the bright sun - again, the sun is bright, it should be bright in a photograph. I find most photographs these days (especially those including the sun) to be far too dark myself. While dramatic and eye catching on screen, it just doesn't relate to the natural world, which is what nature photographs are all about for me. It looks like the kind of stuff I would see in a disney movie and fantasy series like lord of the rings. Fantastical, but just not connected to the reality of the human experience. (That is of course different for night images, which should most certainly be rather dark).

As an aside, several non-photographer colleagues and friends of mine have, unprompted, said that they really enjoy this particular image.. usually no one says anything...

I always enjoy you're very natural lighting in your scenes Floris and this one is very nicely done. Nice warm light across the scene also.
I agree there seems to be a lot of extremely dark images on the net lately and being into prints they don't appeal to me sometimes. Very nice job on this.

This is real nice, Floris, but I'm more captivated by the image at the link you posted (the vertical composition). That one really hits the sweet spot. This one I like as well, and it feels very realistic. When it comes right down to it though, I can't help but prefer a composition that gives the spire center stage.

Hey Floris... great discussion here and I enjoy reading the justifications for the comp and the alternate opinions. This is what photography forums are all about!

What gives me pause about this version is that a decent portion of the image under the sunstar is more washed out and tough to see. If there were a bit more contrast or less flare there, I think it would let my eye explore a bit more as you stated. Perhaps that is part of the intentional "blinding" you described or you may decide to keep it more in the sun and sky