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Yet another sunset

Rachel Foster

New member
I've been going through old files trying to see them with a fresh eye. This one got my attention. The question is whether there's anything to this or if I've been (yet again) seduced by the colors.

smallsunset.jpg


Jacob Eliana: Sunset
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
...The question is whether there's anything to this or if I've been (yet again) seduced by the colors.
Hi Rachel,

My initial reaction is affirmative. The colors are very seductive but the image suffers from the typical shortcomings of typical sunset images, about which we have discussed extensively here and here in the past. Let me quote a very valuable statement by Ken Tanaka from that tread here again, it is worth re-reading:

Rachel; You've already received some productive suggestions from Asher and Nicolas, and you've reached a revelation of your own. So I don't know that I can offer much more. But here are my off-the-cuff thoughts on this image.

Colorful sunsets can elicit emotional responses from everyone. Rather like aurora borealis displays they're ephemeral, they're dazzling, and they're bigger than life. They prompt us to contemplate our smallness within the universe for just a few moments. So it's natural to try to bottle and share such a remarkable experience with a camera. (Many years ago (late 1960's?) I read a remark from a senior marketing exec at Kodak along the lines of, "Sunsets and kids account for 70% of our color film sales.".)

The problem is that such experiences don't bottle well. Like a long-opened carbonated beverage, these experiences somehow lose their fizz in the sharing, even the best such images. It's natural to wonder why and for photographers to blame their skills for such letdowns.

But the fact is that there's nothing really "wrong" with your photograph at all. It disappoints you because it's only a photograph. You cannot contain and share a human experience as broad and emotionally deep as a brilliant sunset in a little rectangle, any more than you could share the Pacific Ocean in a gallon jug. It's an experience in which you were immersed, not simply a viewer. That's why so much landscape photography, however colorful and skillfully recorded, is howlingly boring. Beholding something like the Grand Canyon is a far bigger experience than any lens could ever capture. ("You ain' got dat lens."

So your revelation may put you on track to create new types of images using such experiential scenes. One of the most significant suggestions I ever received along these lines came very casually from the mouth of a very accomplished photojournalist. He said, "Whenever I see a great landscape scene I search for something interesting to put in front of it.". That principal has served me very well for a long time.



Cheers,
 

Rachel Foster

New member
That's what I was afraid of and is why I posted the image. I'm having a difficult time creating something that overcomes those shortcomings. For example, I suspect this is "just another sunset."

smmusksun.jpg


Jacob Eliana: Muskegon Sunset

I think I'm going to stop trying to capture sunsets until I better understand other compositional elements. I'm partial to trees so I've a difficult time evaluating their photo-worthiness.
 

ErikJonas

Banned
My 2 cents granted its not worth anything at this forum but i particularly like the second sunset the waves give it a rolling flowing feel to it....You want to see the waves and between the waves and you follow that to the color in the sky...The differance between the two images is the waves add character to the image thus its not just another sunset...It has a flow to it...
 

Rachel Foster

New member
Thanks, Eric. My difficulty is discovering how to move past "pretty sunset" to "This is extraordinary!" I'm struggling that. The problem with shooting inherently pretty scenes is they are so much harder to move into the realm of "wow!"
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I've been going through old files trying to see them with a fresh eye. This one got my attention. The question is whether there's anything to this or if I've been (yet again) seduced by the colors.

smallsunset.jpg


Jacob Eliana: Sunset


Rachel,

This picture does go someway to overcoming the pretty sunset club. It's in the trees. As you can bring out more of such features, you will build a more distinguishable picture. Just keep at it. This is a modest start.

Don't discard the horizontal form to show more skyline.

Asher
 
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