Swamp Music: Foggy dawn in the cypress swamp yesterday. An experiment of course, more about that later. For now, please let me know your thoughts.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Foggy dawn in the cypress swamp yesterday. An experiment of course, more about that later. For now, please let me know your thoughts.

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PaulG Loc: Western Australia

Very nice and moody Minnie. The lighting, softness and texture work well with this subject. If I had one grizzle it would be the horizontal twig in the background which, to me, slightly jars with the predominantly vertical lines of the trunks. Lovely picture though.

conkerwood

Where I live we don't get fog so it is a light I have not worked with, but I do like the softness and the glow it seems to produce. I think the composition works quite well. On the left the dark bases of the trees guide your eye in and on the right the diagonal reflection of a small branch also gently guides your eye inwards. But what I particularly like is the horizontal branch. It, and its reflection, seem to frame the area to where the eye has been guided, it holds us within the pic. Of course perfection would have been some sort of critter hanging from the branch looking menacing, just to counteract the softness of the scene but such fortuitous moments rarely occur. Yeah I like this pic, it works well for me.

Peter

Joanna27 Loc: Lakewood Ca

minniev wrote:

Foggy dawn in the cypress swamp yesterday. An experiment of course, more about that later. For now, please let me know your thoughts.

I love looking at the interface between the trees and their reflections. It is obviously a image/reflection but yet it doesn't look like a reflection. Really subtle. Image almost looks continuous, not a reflection. Really neat. You always have interesting subjects.

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

minniev wrote:

... please let me know your thoughts.

I almost added painter to your many list of talents. Wow, really wow!
- You've found the artist within! S-

Billyspad Loc: The Philippines

Beautifully done min. Quite stunning. One half of me is screaming get rid of that horizontal branch and yet the more you look at the more it seems to belong.
You obviously quite purposely left it in and your reasoning behind that would make interesting reading.
Just waiting for "love how you have captured the light" quote to fall in line lol.
A very fine picture indeed
Hope you are getting around to playing us some swamp rock to go with this series, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Dr Hook and the Medicine Show maybe?

Sylvia's mother says, 'Sylvia's busy
Too busy to come to the phone'
Sylvia's mother says, 'Sylvia's tryin'
To start a new life of her own'
Sylvia's mother says, 'Sylvia's happy
So why don't you leave her alone?'

And the operator says, '40 cents more for the next 3 minutes'
Please Mrs. Avery, I just gotta talk to her
I'll only keep her a while
Please Mrs. Avery, I just wanna tell 'er goodbye

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

conkerwood wrote:

... I think the composition works quite well. On the left the dark bases of the trees guide your eye in and on the right the diagonal reflection of a small branch also gently guides your eye inwards. But what I particularly like is the horizontal branch. It, and its reflection, seem to frame the area to where the eye has been guided, it holds us within the pic...Peter

I agree with Peter re the horizontal limb. And also because we often see shots of forests with strictly vertical trunks. The branch is not dominating, and is a nice little counterpoint.

I love the mood, the processing, and everything about this gorgeous image, Minnie!

Frank2013 Loc: San Antonio, TX. & Milwaukee, WI.

minniev wrote:

For now, please let me know your thoughts.

No need to listen too any of us minniev.you have arrived. What we have to say while taken into account by you will no longer have the same influence of the past, you have gained your vision so run with it and never look back. Not bad on the pp work either by the way.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

PaulG wrote:

Very nice and moody Minnie. The lighting, softness and texture work well with this subject. If I had one grizzle it would be the horizontal twig in the background which, to me, slightly jars with the predominantly vertical lines of the trunks. Lovely picture though.

Thank you Paul, I'm glad you spotted the texture work. I kept it very subtle on purpose but it's there. Of course the twig is an issue. It's too big and complicated to clone out (with my skills), and I couldn't compose around it. My usual approach when confronted with such lemons at this stage in my game is to find a recipe for lemonade, and embrace the offending element. That's what I tried to do, but the outcome is always uncertain.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

conkerwood wrote:

Where I live we don't get fog so it is a light I h... (show quote)

Thank you Peter, for these detailed comments! The branch, which I initially tried to work around, became exactly what you've said in the end - my notion of creating a "target" for the eye, to draw a viewer deeper into the swamp with all its nuances. I actually did some extra pp on just the branch once I accepted the darned thing, to make it more defined and better lit, and enhance those few orange leaves.

Fog is my favorite weather for photography, and it seldom finds its way into this swamp for various reasons so I was glad to find it here and had fun capturing and later shaping the light.

You or Billy might wish to hang a possum upside down with his tail curled around that branch. He'd be pretty fun, with a toothy little smile..

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Joanna27 wrote:

I love looking at the interface between the trees and their reflections. It is obviously a image/reflection but yet it doesn't look like a reflection. Really subtle. Image almost looks continuous, not a reflection. Really neat. You always have interesting subjects.

Thanks Joanna. The original image is much clearer on the reflections. The continuous effect is something I was experimenting with in Photoshop, not knowing how to do it and only having a couple of vague clues to build on. I'm glad to know that a viewer actually "sees" the effect I was trying for.

Most people would find the swamps very boring, in the 7 years I've been doing photography I'm in this swamp at least once a week and I have never seen but one other photographer, a man looking for birds with a rig as big as a civil war cannon.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

St3v3M wrote:

I almost added painter to your many list of talents. Wow, really wow!
- You've found the artist within! S-

Thank you so much Steve. I'm a frustrated painter at heart I guess.

I'll post a thread later that shows what I'm working on and ask others to help me figure it out. I'm sure there are ideas that the good brains on this section can bring to bear on my quest.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Billyspad wrote:

Beautifully done min. Quite stunning. One half of ... (show quote)

Thank you Billy. I'll take that as high praise from a fellow who finds landscapes a useless endeavor for photographers. Maybe if we start with a boring landscape and find a way to make it interesting, that is more satisfying somehow than capturing one of the famous grand views?

The horizontal branch, while initially an annoyance, became the reason for the image in the end of it. I went to a lot of trouble to make it more noticeable, hoping it and its reflection might form a magic door to look through and see further into my swamp. Hoping a visitor would fly into the swamp, go past the big tree on the left, and sail through the window. You could hang your red umbrella on it as you fly past.

Of course this one is all about the processing technique, a new adventure I'm undertaking that I'll be posting another thread on, asking for Help From The Group to figure out.

No Credence or Dr Hook in this one. Tried Philip Glass and he couldn't get the job done this time, I think it finally took some Celtic harp music to get the kinks out.

Joanna27 Loc: Lakewood Ca

minniev wrote:

Thank you Paul, I'm glad you spotted the texture work. I kept it very subtle on purpose but it's there. Of course the twig is an issue. It's too big and complicated to clone out (with my skills), and I couldn't compose around it. My usual approach when confronted with such lemons at this stage in my game is to find a recipe for lemonade, and embrace the offending element. That's what I tried to do, but the outcome is always uncertain.

You made good lemonade. I like the branch. It helps move my eyes around the image without being overwhelming.

I love your various locations. I wish I could follow you around but I live in too far away. :)

Pixelpixie88 Loc: Northern Minnesota

I think this is beautifully done, Minnie! Love the lighting, I don't mind the branch. I wonder about adding just a little more space to it...not much. First impression...really like!