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Harley Goldman: Mojave Desert With Snowfall
Harley,
I like your picture. It stands out for its precision and fullness in drawing this well chosen desert scene. Was there any special processing? The shading in the clouds and the tree is so very dimensional, The fine details of the grasses are sharp. This level of craft is often seen in the best HDR work with digital photography. Your work with film is impressive. Was this a scanned negative processed in Photoshop or is this just darkroom processed?
This is a well designed framing of a white tree in a composition where the perimeter gets darker by gradient or by a pattern in grasses and dark soil. That alone, enhances our interest on this already distinguished bare tree.
But there's an extra design element that adds a boost to the dynamic of the image. It's in the unusual but simple framing. Almost always, a dark border imprisons an image and conflicts with its lightness and ability to dominate a wall. That's why large white mattes work so well. Here, however, your use of an intervening fine white line, while surprising to me, seems to recapitulate the radial transition from white to dark but in a more definitive manner.
Despite my praise of your instinct in this unique framing, I really believe that a white matte will do the picture justice and allow it to breathe.
Kudos,
Asher
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