Photo Critique: Truman Cove, New Zealand, 1987

[Rick A]

Vaughn, though I normally will leave a positive comment about a photograph, I do have a couple of concerns on this one. First, it is a pleasant photo, well composed and executed.
My thoughts are, others believe it appears tilted left. If you had tilted more to the right it would appear more left leaning (due to the lines in the background). You would need to tilt left to level the lines and that would totally discombobulate the foreground, I like the "levelness" of the composition. That isn't really an issue, it's the driftwood. The light tones of the wood draw the eye and blocks my ability to be "led through" the photo . I am unable to gaze into it and get lost in the image.
But hey, I wasn't there and I didn't take the shot, you did and it is your souvenir of a wonderful life event.
Cheers!

[Vaughn]

Thanks, Rick. I appreciate your point of view. And this is why I offered this image up for critique. From my 6-month adventure on a bike with a 4x5 in NZ, this is the most important image to me personally. Certainly not a favorite of others (and I have wondered why), but it was not taken for that reason either. I do hope others can appreciate it, but no one needs to put it up on their walls. I have it up -- in my bedroom until it fell in the last quake -- now it is behind me as I type.

It was not my intention to draw and lead the viewer's eye into the image to settle in comfortably...unless one is comfortable with being in this type of mental and physical space. This is my journey to that point in space and time. My first photo in NZ was on 28 October, and it was 26 January for this image. The previous 3 weeks had no images...only rain, a bad knee, the flu (with a week in the tent in the rain, too sick to ride), and about 300 miles of bicycle riding. But I was camping in a beautiful place, feeling dang good by this time, and excited about the light.

Not every landscape should be a gentle stroll. Think of the power and movement in some landscape images, such as AA's Waterwheel Fall https://shop.anseladams.com/products...31873824981059

North/South/East/West...Air/Water/Earth/Fire...the Four Horsemen.
So I have brought forth four very strong independent forms...a pyramid of light up from the sea, the solidity of rock, columns of native flax, and exposed layers of time. And falling into the center is the water that binds everything. And I do not even let anyone see that center nor rest there! How rude! Life is not that easy. What attracts your eye? (rhetorical)

[djdister]

Its obvious that making this photograph meant an awful lot to you, and that you impart a great deal of emotional and psychological heft to it. Having said that, it seems to offer the viewer a Rorschach test of incomplete elements that do not add up compositionally (to me).

It was bold of you to post such a personal image and ask for a critique, so bravo!