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S. Fork Stanislaus River, Fall

Discussion

7 replies
Posted by Preston Birdwell on July 7, 2008 at 2:30 PM
I made this photograph on my birthday last October, and finally scanned it. It is cropped a bit from the top with minor PS work.

Tachihara 4x5
180mm Fujinon Lens
Astia 100-f

Your thoughts are always appreciated. :smile:

-P
Posted by Richard Wong on July 8, 2008 at 3:03 AM
Personally I'm not much of a rock guy, but I love the colors of the water and the little cascade there.
Posted by Lon Overacker on July 8, 2008 at 5:05 PM
So glad to see you posting some images again Preston. I actually quite like the rocks and the almost monochrome gray colors. Although the very top works, I would almost be inclined to crop the far top rocks so that only the yellow/gold reflection shows at the top. I think that really simplifies the scene. The cascade is nice too. Very nice stream portrait.

Lon

Posted by Harley Goldman on July 8, 2008 at 6:57 PM
Hi Preston!!!

I like it. Funny Lon mentioned cropping. I would either like more of the rocks at the top or have them cropped out.

Glad to see you back in the saddle (or out of it, as the case may be). :biggrin:
Posted by Paul Breitkreuz on July 8, 2008 at 9:06 PM
Preston, when I first opened this up I had to check the header as to where this was. At first glance I thought it might have been the site we shot along the creek below Virgina Lakes last fall. However, this perspective is much higher then we were shooting from. The large gray rocks in the FG provide a nice base to the scene, but I might go with the crowd on this one for a very slight crop at the top. I do think the main attention is toward the lower rocks and small cascades. Excellent detail throughout the scene from the 4x5 too.
Posted by Preston Birdwell on July 8, 2008 at 10:45 PM
Are you guys 'share-croppers'? You must be, since you share the opinion that I should crop this image. :smile:

I agree with you, actually. My first thought was to use the rocks across the top to sort of 'contain' the bright water, but I see that I can focaus on the main elements by cropping them out.

Thanks for you comments!

-PB
Posted by Dan Truong on July 11, 2008 at 4:04 PM
Personally I would not crop the top, I think it frames the gold pool and gives closure to the photo, otherwise I'd wonder where the boundary is... To talk about balance again, it's a little too shadow-bluish.

OTOH, the photo is nice but I would not give the composition a top rating.
Posted by Reno DiTullio on July 14, 2008 at 4:07 PM
Preston, I like it but I'm not excited about it, being a "share-cropper" like some of the others, cropping the top rocks forces me to concentrate on all the detail in the foreground comp and the cascade.