neilds37 Loc: Port Angeles, WA

Well, after having my previous post greeted with all the resonance of dandelion fluff
landing on cotton-candy I'll have another go at it. FYI, after living as a National
Park Ranger for 26 years in an area that the population for over 30 miles on either side
was involved in the cutting and processing of trees, I seriously doubt that any negative
comments on a photo I post could hurt my feelings. Oh, I almost forgot the Native American
population of three tribes with net fishing on three rivers in my area.

New camera with my two major editing programs not accepting it's raw files, I got hold of
Capture One Express for Sony. I always felt that Lightroom was like taking an auto trip
from Seattle to Portland by way of Spokane, Capture One is like taking the same trip by way
of Denver. This image was taken a few seconds at 40 mph after the previous.

(Download)

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

OK, I'll bite As you know, Neil, the For Your Consideration consists primarily of two themes:

1. Here is my best effort. Give me your reaction.

2. I'm not sure about my message/pp/composition/story. Help me, please.

Which are you presenting?

neilds37 Loc: Port Angeles, WA

Linda, which one it is for the time, I'll accept any comments on either side. This one is (1), but (2) will do. Sort of like meadows in Mt. Rainier.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Thanks. btw, I loved your description of your pp software

OK, here goes:

If I did not know that you shot from a moving car, I would wonder why the post was blurred and why you didn't get closer to the railing so that it would not block my view. The middle horizontal line covers just enough of the waterline to make it appear as if the image is tilting down to the left.

The light is flat and the view not particularly inspiring. Since I know you live in that area, I am curious what drew you to photograph the scene? I read your comment in your other posting, but the scene doesn't present itself to me as fresh snow, and because it is a mountain range, I kind of expect there to be snow there in January.

neilds37 Loc: Port Angeles, WA

Thanks for the detailed comments. What drew me to photograph that scene? I'm used to driving and the increasing health imposed tenure in the passenger seat has me (1) bored when I'm not asleep, and (2) I'm seeing views I've only caught glimpses of before. I shoot anything with a possibility and I love mountains and clouds, and I think the Olympics are always inspiring. The snows have not been all that frequent, and by this time I did not expect to see so much black rock showing. Our only snow at 450'was before Thanksgiving, we think. That shot of Mt. Olympus by Lawrence68 should have been all white.
Cheers,
IMO, the Olympics are mountains, the Cascades are volcanoes!

R.G. Loc: Scotland

I think you're falling victim to the way we see things. Our eyes don't zoom, but we can focus our attention on specific areas, which is the equivalent of zooming. The trouble is we tend to do that without realising that we're concentrating our awareness, and we do it as a first-hand observer, whereas we don't do it when looking at photos (unless viewed as a very large print or on a very large screen). As a consequence, areas of interest within a shot can become lost in all the context and they can be shrunk down to insignificance within the shot.

To reproduce what it was like to view those mountains first-hand you would have to either view a very large version or you would have to crop down to the areas of interest. In addition, much of the visual drama of mountains is in their height, which means that their peaks have a particular significance. In your shot the peaks are partly obscured by cloud/mist, which would be OK if they were close enough to be a focus of interest, because then you could afford to have the visual impact weakened, but in this case they are too distant and need all the prominence they can get. Cropping closer to the areas of interest would lessen that problem.

magnetoman Loc: Purbeck, Dorset, UK

I think RG’s explanation of what goes on when we take landscape shots is spot-on. It’s applies to your shot Neil and many of my own as well. It’s not the easiest of things to overcome either as, photographically, our first thought is to zoom in but that doesn’t give us the view we saw before putting the camera to our eye. I guess that’s why we invented the panoramic format or crop. Whatever you do with this one Neil, that railing needs to go.

neilds37 Loc: Port Angeles, WA

Linda, RG and MM, your assessment of the situation is what I feared was the case, but I just had to ask. I love clouds and I love white mountains, put them together and, to me, the picture is perfect. I knew the mountains would be better cropped down, but then the clouds would be lost and I felt that for the picture to work they had to be joined. Thank you all for bringing me back down to reality. I'll save ink and paper for the times when I'm closer in.

neilds37 Loc: Port Angeles, WA

Linda, RG and MM, your assessment of the situation is what I feared was the case, but I just had to ask. I love clouds and I love white mountains, put them together and, to me, the picture is perfect. I knew the mountains would be better cropped down, but then the clouds would be lost and I felt that for the picture to work they had to be joined. Thank you all for bringing me back down to reality. I'll save ink and paper for the times when I'm closer in.