Ephemeral Brilliance

Gallery: LandscapePosted November 8, 2015297 views11 comments

Please click on the image above to see a larger view.

About the title "Ephemeral Brilliance" A visitor with a tripod stopped to chat just as I finished my sunrise shoot at a popular roadside pond. With a starry-eyed scan of the hillside, he proclaimed "Wow, this is a once in a lifetime experience." That made me realize that most people outside the area -- with only weekends for travel -- seldom have the opportunity to witness the peak of the Adirondack fall colors during "bluebird weather." Peak colors don't last long, but this year, the best colors in the valleys around the most popular tourist routes fell on Columbus Day weekend, and the weather was was warm and sunny.

Leaving the roadside spots to the leaf peepers, I scrambled around streams looking for close-ups and reflection shots when the Sun got high. Less than 50 yards off the road, I could still see some open views. Even in the middle of the day, I found this larger scale landscape irresistible, so I quickly grabbed a few shots. Just today -- nearly a month later -- I was surprised at how much I liked this "snapshot," especially for a mid-day shot. This is pretty much what the Raw file looked like except for lowering highlights, opening up the shadows significantly, and then adding some clarity (did not have to play with saturation).

QUESTION: Is there too much going on here? I tried several crops, eliminating the foreground leaf and the overhead cloud, but this seems the most balanced to me. It would be easy to clone out that floating beech leaf, but I didn't think of that until just now.

Canon 5D3; Canon 24-105 mm.
1/40 sec. @ f/16; ISO 640; Circ. Pol.
Camera braced on a rock (instead of using a tripod).

Comments

11 comments

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on November 9, 2015 at 9:58 AM

Wayne, I like this a lot. There's a terrific glow in the trees on the distant and their reflection, you've got great ripple action in the pond, and I like that leaf in the lower left corner. If you're going to clone something out, I'd say go for the twig that's helping to hold the beech leaf in place. The clouds are an important addition to the sky.

Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Greenwood on November 9, 2015 at 1:18 PM

I agree with Mark ... keep the leaf, clone out the twig(s) (the smaller one on the left too). Nice work!

P.S. - For some reason, the shadows look a little more opened up in the large image.

Registered on November 9, 2003, 229 Posts, 1523 Comments

Comment posted by Harley Goldman on November 9, 2015 at 5:57 PM

Real nice scene. My take, I find the leaf in the lower left a bit of an attention brake. I find myself stopping there instead of flowing through the image. But I am flying solo with that one, as is often the case. sad

I like the image.

Registered on November 19, 2003, 586 Posts, 11271 Comments

Comment posted by Eva McDermott on November 9, 2015 at 6:44 PM

Love the brillant color and golden reflection off the water. I would crop the leaf out completely and go with a 6X7 format. I think the light is balanced just right with the brighter areas and shadows.

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

Comment posted by Ryan Shain on November 9, 2015 at 10:40 PM

Hi Wayne,

I like this image, and I feel the balance is right on the money. The twig gets my vote to be cloned out as well, and in a perfect world, I would have preferred just the lone beech leaf in the corner, but this image works very well with the wonderful colors captured.

So I like the balance, and clone out the twig.

Beautiful work Wayne!!!

Registered on February 20, 2007, 226 Posts, 4571 Comments

Comment posted by Igor Doncov on November 10, 2015 at 5:27 AM

I'm looking at this from an iPhone so I could be wrong. But there's an intriguing composition of the lower half of the image that includes all the water and a small strip of dark rocks at the top.

Registered on November 22, 2014, 189 Posts, 2733 Comments

Comment posted by Nick Bristol on November 10, 2015 at 10:10 AM

Hi Wayne, This is such a pretty scene and I love what the reflections add to it. It is nice as is but I think I prefer it by cropping out the leaves and branch in the lower left corner but still staying a little below the rock on the lower right. That look just felt nice to me and very balanced. Might have to clone out the top of the twig if you decided to try it that way so you don't get the bottom of the frame overly close to the bottom of the right rock. cool

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

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

Comment posted by gary phillips on November 10, 2015 at 11:54 AM

Knowing that you are curator of floating leaves makes it hard for me to vote for it's demise. But that is in fact my vote. It just looks as if you add to stretch the image to make it work. Otherwise another beauty.

Registered on October 24, 2013, 185 Posts, 4136 Comments

Comment posted by Igor Hoveijn on November 10, 2015 at 5:13 PM

I would not clone out a thing. The little twig in the llc repeats the reflection of the trees, therefore I like it. And the leaf reperats the colours of the glowing wood. Nice picture of a nice place.

Registered on November 2, 2015, 18 Posts, 192 Comments

Comment posted by Wayne Jones on November 10, 2015 at 5:47 PM

Thanks to everyone. ALL your adice really helps!

I asked the question about simplifying this comp because I was thiking kind of like Harley, Nick and Gary, and then Eva showed me how to make that work. I posted the 6x7 cropped version HERE, and explained why Eva's suggestion made it work.

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

Comment posted by Albert Darmo on November 13, 2015 at 11:47 AM

Hi Wayne.

Eva's comment expresed my thoughts perfectly cool

Albert Darmo
Canada

Registered on November 25, 2008, 1386 Posts, 11978 Comments