Winding Hills Park and Rickety Barns

[vvcarpio]

My wife and I took these photos at Winding Hills Park in the Village of Montgomerry yesterday after the snowstorm. (We were spared -- we only got 3 inches, NYC got 12.)

C&C always appreciated. Thanks for looking!

#1. Frozen Lake


#2. Sunrise.


#3. Barn silo.


#4. Barn.


#5. Destroyed barn.


#6. Brook.

[Walter_S]

Well, vvcarpio - the fact that no one has commented this series for 6 days speaks for itself, i guess....

As I am one of the greatest admirers of your style of photography, and usually comment your NY series in particular, I will try to unfold my feelings for your shots in this series as well, even though I'm not sure you will like what i feel.


# 1-shot: I cannot bring myself to say - it's no good, because - what do I know - and there might be something there I cannot see. But it doesn't do much for me. If one is to go and look for positive things to say about it, it might be that semi-circle of log-fence starting off pretty nicely in the bottom-frame, but the end is not so good. The left edge is cutting off halve a bench. The middle-ground is nothing but a whiteness. The ring of trees isn't very interesting and neither is the sky....

A hopeless motive?

Perhaps a difficult one. I would have walked past this scene, or may be I would have made the two emty benches my main-subject, possible with a close-up or close view of them (one only...?) and the surroundings if I had a strong enough wideangle (Fisheye...?).
Enough said.


#2-shot: This is one where you have "something". The tree and the rest of the composition is quite appealing in its form, but a hopeless shot to get, shooting straight into the sun on a winters-day. Blown sun, inevitable. Also the sky has some color artifacts that spoil the scene.


#3-shot: Nice enough barn and bin (or silo...?), but neither of them are whole (cut off bits here and there) and the naked trees are more of a hindrance then a bonus. Far too much halo around the tree-tops and the top of the silo - for my taste anyway. Unappetizing color-artifacts in the sky.



#4-shot: That barn is lovely and old and should be a good motive, but its was probably difficult to frame - My guess. The tarmac-road (would be easy to dodge) and the power-lines have a distracting effect to the viewer. Also the sky has a non-inviting color and some heavy noise-level. The barn itself is properly exposed and framed with a good and friendly composition.



#5-shot: Nice rural setting, but the yellow double-lin on the road is attracting my eyes. The trees and shrub around the barn are leading the eye into the sky, away from the main-subject(s). Good exposure and colors, but a bit "messy" and too buisy to look at.



#6-shot: Nice enough motive with the small stream beeing the main-object. IMO there is too much of woodland around, which distracts the eye and leads it out into nowhere. Maybe a norrower crop would do it good? I made a quick crop just to show what I mean. Another alternative her would have been to walk into the snow ( a passionate photographer doesn't mind getting his shoes wet...), down to the stream, croutch low and give it a shot with your widangel just above the water and along the streams direction, thus making the water the main-attraction and the woods only garnish.



Now - I hope you don't mind my being so frank, but I think even negative comments are better than no comments at all. Besides that, I find it difficult to give advise because I am relly not a critique at all, lacking long enough experience with photography and shooting mainly seascapes. So, I just conveyed you my own, personal thoughts her.


Better luck next time, and don't give up taking your camera out of NYC and into the country. It's a rewarding passion!

[vvcarpio]

Thanks, a lot, Walter! I appreciate your taking the time to type up the comments. I know you'd rather be outside taking pictures and/or inside post-processing them (like I do) -- who has time for critiquing other photographers' work? And, no, I don't mind the negative comments at all. I was hoping for them. I will study your comments in great detail.

[Wingman]

I really like the composition on #1 (Frozen Lake). I took the libierty of brightening it up a bit (Hope you do not mind).

The rest of the images are technically good, but can't say that the compositions appeal to me! In any event, you are doinig more than I am which getting out in the wiinter and taking pictures!

[vvcarpio]

Originally Posted by jelpee

I really like the composition on #1 (Frozen Lake). I took the libierty of brightening it up a bit (Hope you do not mind).

The rest of the images are technically good, but can't say that the compositions appeal to me! In any event, you are doinig more than I am which getting out in the wiinter and taking pictures!

No, I do not mind. In fact, I like it -- a lot, lot, lot!

In retrospect (even before Walter posted his comments), I think I put too much color on all my shots thinking the white snow needed some color. Your edit looks more natural. Thanks!

[Wingman]

Originally Posted by vvcarpio

No, I do not mind. In fact, I like it -- a lot, lot, lot!

In retrospect (even before Walter posted his comments), I think I put too much color on all my shots thinking the white snow needed some color. Your edit looks more natural. Thanks!

I usually shoot about +1 to 1.5 EV when shooting snow since all the bright light of the snow fools the light meter in the camera into thinking there is too much light and therefore tends to produce dull images. However, a duplicate layer in PSE 8 with the "screen" option makes a convenient fix.

[vvcarpio]

Oh OK about the "screen" option. I am just now learning about the blending modes in PSE (I think that's what they're called). Good tip also to try out about the +1 to 1.5 EV on snow. Thanks!