jonsommer Loc: Usually, somewhere on the U.S. west coast.

I'll admit that I'm really a novice when it comes to landscapes, so I'll be very appreciative of all your comments and suggestions for improvement. We are visiting my wife's brother in Alberta, Canada and I was getting cabin fever, so, I took my camera and went for a walk, when I couldn't feel my fingers any more, I turned around and went back inside. I was hoping to capture the 'coldness and crispness' of the -20 temps, as well as the simple beauty of the area. This is what I came back with. Please let me know if it "works".

Just befor sunset on Christmas Day in Alberta

(Download)

tramsey Loc: Texas

I think it is an excellent photo. The only thing I would do would be crop some of the foreground

jonsommer Loc: Usually, somewhere on the U.S. west coast.

To help me better understand your comment, are you suggesting that the vertical orientation doesn't work and a landscape orientation is better for, well, a landscape, or is there something with the foreground that doesn't work?

Thanks for commenting, bye the way.

Nightski

As a whole, this image just doesn't work for me. There is so much in this image, and yet there is not one thing I can grab on to and find interesting. Yes, there are grand landscapes that work, but all the elements are working together. In this image the hill in shadow blocks the viewers eye from moving through the frame. The grasses and snow are pretty, but they are not interesting enough to take up 1/2 of the frame. The fence promises a nice leading line, but it cuts across the image acting as more of a blocker than a leader. White birch trees against the blue sky are gorgeous, but I can't make out any detail in the trees. It looks like if you caught them in the right angle and light the intersecting hills could serve as a very nice subject.

Now, I know .. the brain just quits working in this kind of cold. Your hands are screaming at you and it's hard to think .. it's hard to recompose ... it's hard to make yourself set up again.

So my advice would be to know exactly what you are after when you go out in -20 degree weather. Have a plan.

I have just recently been shooting a certain subject in this kind of weather. I've been out twice now.
First time: I didn't know what I was after exactly.

Second time: After I got home and loaded the pics, I had ideas of how I wanted to perfect it. Went back out, and shot a couple of the ideas I had .. hands started screaming at me .. lost all concetration ... had to go home, upload again and still not happy.

Third time: I am ready now .. I think ... :shock:

Jon .. the first thing I would like to see in this shot is those gorgeous birch trees (just a section of them) in sharp focus against that blue sky. Not the whole tree top to bottom. Get in close, get the detail. You could shoot just blue sky beyond or a combo of blue sky and snowy grasses with a horizon. I think either would work. I want the trees so sharp I can see the frost on them ... telling me that this is indeed a bitterly cold day.

jonsommer Loc: Usually, somewhere on the U.S. west coast.

Nightski, thank you very much for your detailed recommendations and observations - I'll work on remembering them next time I have an opportunity to wander - after this day, it got seriously cold, -25 and a biting wind chill , too- I've never really felt anything quite like it, so I stayed inside, afraid my fingers would freeze to the camera body (kinda like the tongue on the flagpole) if I ventured outside, or worse.

Anyway, Happy New Year to you and yours, and thanks for all you do for the photo critique section.

Nightski

These are on my wish list, Jon. :-)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KKMX85M/ref=s9_simh_gw_p200_d1_i3?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=1QQ5RJ3TR7G3GTB375HQ&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=1970559082&pf_rd_i=desktop

Billyspad Loc: The Philippines

I think Sandra is saying there is too much in this frame which is perfectly correct. If you crop 40% off the bottom of the frame it makes for quite a nice image. Leads the eye in and makes one wonder what is over the hill.
Sandras idea for your next shots sound excellent,when it warms up a little.

mcveed Loc: Kelowna, British Columbia (between trips)

I'm afraid this image leaves me cold (pun intended). I can't help wondering what it was about this scene that made you want to capture it and take it home. The foreground has no particularly interesting or beautiful aspects that would make me point my camera at it. If it was the warm sunshine on the poplar trees, then it is unfortunate that they are over exposed and out of focus. Perhaps in your wish to get a cold element into the image you went overboard and included too much. There's an old saying that he who tries to include everything in the picture ends up including nothing.

Uuglypher Loc: South Dakota (East River)

Hi, Jon,
To balance some comments to the contrary, I believe I feel....know...exactly why you made this particular image and included the amount of foreground....appropriate to my eye...that you did. It was obviously a cold day and where you stood was one of the coldest places from which to make an image....in the shade of the North side of that hill that has allowed the snow to persist on the native, unmowed, ungrazed grass ground cover of that patch of the Alberta edge of the Canadian prairie. The golden late light on the unshaded trees reminds me that however cold it is at that moment, it will become inexorably colder as the sun soon sets!
Your image gives me an excellent and accurate sense of place, of time of day, and of progressively, quickly colding...(not cooling)..air...and of the desire to get somewhere warm for the evening.
Your image puts me there...and then...and in the air you felt.
Thanks for the experience.

Dave in SD

jonsommer Loc: Usually, somewhere on the U.S. west coast.

Dear mcVeed,
Thank you for you comments. However, I think you missed the point. Please see uuglypher's comments, he says it better that I ever could.

jonsommer Loc: Usually, somewhere on the U.S. west coast.

Dave in SD, you get it. You put into words my thoughts and feelings as I was standing there, trying to capture not just the look of a place, but maybe more importantly, the feel of a place.

I was starting to worry that nobody would 'see' that, but you did! I'll look forward to reading more of your well thought out, informative and helpful posts.

Thanks,
Jon

Billyspad Loc: The Philippines

Jon I have no axe to grind on this issue and feel you posted a reasonable photo. Not good not particularly bad just reasonable.
Im sure mcveed is quite capable of answering the points you have raised for himself but do feel your reply to him has tainted this post. If you post in the critique forum you are going to get a variety of opinions some of which may not suit you, some in language you may find too direct for your taste. That is the nature of a Critique Forum.
You want sweet words about your work post it in the General Forum. Everything there is a good shot and well captured but you learn nothing.
I have read books and watched videos until my eyes burned but learnt a lot more here in a few months by listening and accepting that all critique is valid. Not always easy!
I hope you reconsider your comments to mcveed and make a request to Admin here to remove your post which was obviously written in a moment of supreme annoyance but as an independent in this matter I can assure you mcveed has produced some stunning images. Not all just some as he is just like the rest of us. He does however take criticism gracefully will thank the critic and act upon it if he feels it is valid. Thats how this section should work

jonsommer Loc: Usually, somewhere on the U.S. west coast.

Billyspad - good suggestion. Please note edits above.

Billyspad Loc: The Philippines

Good move Jon. Look forward to seeing a load more of your work on here

mcveed Loc: Kelowna, British Columbia (between trips)

Gosh. I wish I'd seen the original comments. How about PMing me your original reaction. After you get to know Dave a bit better you'll realize that he is a bit of a poet and a dreamer (no offence Dave). He can make a silk purse out of a sows ear and conjure up all sorts of feelings from a photograph that 99% of your viewers will never experience, myself included.