Your Best Photograph from the Previous Month - Critique and Discussion Encouraged

[Vaughn]

I enjoyed the first rendition I saw of this image, as it wonderfully expressed the light that can be found there. Now the light fits people's expectations.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

I enjoyed the first rendition I saw of this image, as it wonderfully expressed the light that can be found there. Now the light fits people's expectations.

That was my thought. First rendition was how I saw it when there. The second, posted here is a bit over the top, but as you say, fits expectations. Saturated, in your face colors with shadows really opened up. Ie, it fits what modern digital shooter s expect. I like both versions, but the first one is the more realistic one. I will have to study them to decide which one I like better. I think I know, but need to decide.

I also think both versions capture the mood of beauty, desolation and isolation. A good juxtaposition.

[Vaughn]

This latest rendition is a very beautiful photo of a beautiful place. I found the first rendition to be a wonderful photo that described the essence of a Place as defined by its light. It is all a matter of what you want to express. If you want to impress others, the latest is best. If you want to make photos that will keep impressing yourself a couple decades from now, consider the light of the first rendition. My opinion, of course.

[Tin Can]

It's been almost 40 years since I visited Grand Canyon and Lake Powell as it reached Full

Drove all over the area for several years. 1971 Pontiac Grand Prix. Some hiking. Slept rough near Verde river for a month and loved that. The sound of Coyote was amazing in full dark

Color saturation does vary, especially in my memory

Even reality is sometimes off

Never took one picture those years, bought a couple postcards and sent them

I was traveling very light, as usual

[Vaughn]

I spent a summer (May thru Sept) working on the South Rim (1977), and then into the 80s I'd take a yearly week to 11-day solo backpack trip with my 4x5...usually in late April, but have done a winter trip also. Wish I had a decent image from all that time. So it goes. I have experienced the light there, but I realize that we all see color differently...from ones eyes' particular make-up of rods and cones and how ones brain interprets the signals from the eyes, to, as mentioned, our memory of color. Our brain even does color balancing without our conscience permission. I pass the color-blindness tests just fine, but outdoors I rarely see anything close to the color saturation that I see in many images. It is probably there for some people though. It is what makes color photography a difficult medium.

I think our brains desire the clearest view for safety reasons -- well-lit, good contrast and color saturation -- which can tend to push us in that direction when appreciating images. We like our mysteries, too -- dark prints with secrets in the shadows...but generally not over the couch.

[Tin Can]

Who has a couch, not I, nor a soft chair

The living room is the studio, everything foldable, except the SC11

[Vaughn]

Does my futon count as a couch? It is out as a bed right now -- but has my 8x10 camera pack on it as well as a stacks of 8x10 and 11x14 holders, negatives, trays (up to 16x20), boxes of 8x10 and 11x14 film, and a shoebox of platinum/palladium chemicals.

It does have a photo behind it (Geir Jordahl), as well as a Japanese scroll and a watercolor by my mother.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

To Vaughn's mention of dark/shadows. I liken not opening shadows as much as possible to seeing a woman who is modestly dressed, like a librarian or Amish. There is the hint of what else there is, her mind, etc, but you only have small clues, the rest is up to mystery. If it was all revealed, all the time, why bother looking. It all starts to look the same and then you miss the grander beauty that is the woman instead focusing on the details. Can't see the Forrest for the trees.

[Tin Can]

a muse is very good to have

all artists need one

[Steven Ruttenberg]