"The sun—and the flare it produced—add too much drama to what should be a quiet, meditative (if chilly) scene."—Mason Resnick
© Ginni Holland, Loganville, GA. Gear: Canon Powershot SX10, handheld. Exposure: f/2.8 at 1/640 sec., ISO 400. Auto exposure mode, centerweighted metering, auto white balance. “Slight color enhancing” and cropping in Adobe Photoshop.
Photographer’s statement: “The picture was taken at sunrise at a remote lodge on a mountain top in North Georgia (USA) after a cold snowy night. I tried to capture the beauty of the quiet stillness of the moment. I am excited to get some helpful hints as to what I can do next time to make the picture really grab your attention and give the viewer the same feeling I had of quiet solitude on that mountain top.”
Our Critics say...
Jack Howard: There's an old adage that your legs are the most versatile lens you've got, and that holds true here. The SX10 did a very respectable job for a compact camera with this very wide dynamic range scene, but the photographer could have managed the total contrast by repositioning just a touch to hide the sun behind the chair. But since this can't be reshot, I'd go ahead and seriously pull back the saturation on an expanded Red selection, to make the scene look less like the Adirondack chair is about to incinerate.
Mason Resnick: The sun—and the flare it produced—add too much drama to what should be a quiet, meditative (if chilly) scene. I agree with Jack: Move over an inch or two, and block the direct sun with the chair. What makes the image worse is the photographer’s “slight color enhancing,” which resulted in unnaturally blue snow and distracting yellow clouds. A more modest, low-key approach to the color palette and letting nature take its course would have helped this shot and gotten the feeling of wintry isolation across more effectively.
Monica Cipnic: I have to agree with Jack and Mason. The overly saturated colors don't convey the idea of what the photographer wanted; 'quiet solitude' at a winter sunrise, rather the unnatural heightened color gives a certain drama, but not in the way the photographer intended. A wintry dawn on a remote mountaintop after a snowfall can be captured more realistically as the scene appeared, perhaps in a more monochrome palette, and by altering the composition to hide the strong sun behind the chair as was already mentioned.
What do you think? Leave a comment!
