A path to walk.....

This is one of my recovered files...Not a strong image but i really like it..This is just edited today.I dont see this as one that will sell but more be one of the ones that i love myself....I thought i'd put it up and see if anyone had any helpful perspectives to add as to what might be a better crop that kind of thing...I selected edit and repost ok something i dont normally do but anyway....

This was taken in the Mt. Baker area...I love the texture of the wood bridge and the way the sun was just coming up through the trees...




Taken in 2009 its one of the few images i got on this particular trip.....

The texture on the bridge is superb. I would have lost the little tree on the right and really celebrated the bridge texture by putting the Scheimpflug plane right through it.

Maris Rusis said:

The texture on the bridge is superb. I would have lost the little tree on the right and really celebrated the bridge texture by putting the Scheimpflug plane right through it.

Click to expand...

Maris,

What about the diagonal splash of bright light across the bridge. How would you have dealt with this with film?

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Maris,

What about the diagonal splash of bright light across the bridge. How would you have dealt with this with film?

Asher

Click to expand...

It would likely be less of a problem as you would be unlikely to burn the right beam so thoroughly, or at least it would be more graceful.

MAris, I am sure, is very able to address any usch issues when printing too.

MIke

Asher Kelman said:

Maris,

What about the diagonal splash of bright light across the bridge. How would you have dealt with this with film?

Asher

Click to expand...

The diagonal splash of light is a bonus. The sunlit patch , which looks to be illuminated by yellow oblique light, is maybe 2 stops brighter than the rest of the bridge which is lit by open sky. This 2 stop challenge is well within the detail response range of even a contrasty film like Fuji Velvia.

Given the starkest lighting on the brightest day a shadow can scarcely fall 3 stops darker than the sunny patch next to it. Film, even without special processing, routinely copes with any play of light and shade anywhere on earth; from a salt flat at noon in summer to the Siberian tundra in winter.

What defeats film, and defeats everything else for that matter, are direct light sources and specular reflections both of which in principle have no upper limit. Even so, burned out highlights, provided they are small, are worth including because they can lend a sense of brilliance to a photograph.

Thanks Maris for your response. I always like to hear your insights on film as it comes from hard earned experience.

The sales of Fuji Velvia will probably go through the roof now!

Asher

To me that it is a awesome shot in it's simplicity and I love the swatch of sunlight on the bridge and tree. It's adds that little something that pushes the image over the top to awesome, at least to me.

The texture on the bridge, that is really cool.

As for Fuji Velvia, I haven't shot with that film for a while. Looks like I may do some shooting this weekend with it.

Ok, I have to ask: Am I the only one unimpressed by this image? Is my "artistic" sense that much out of sync?

You're not alone, Rachel. I, too, see nothing technically, aesthetically, or conceptually accomplished in this image whatsoever. Nothing.

Ken Tanaka said:

You're not alone, Rachel. I, too, see nothing technically, aesthetically, or conceptually accomplished in this image whatsoever. Nothing.

Click to expand...

Yes, that's I see that too.

...and the poster is no longer here.

I was just wondering whether or not Maris was being humorous and hence my challenge to him.

Rachel Foster said:

Ok, I have to ask: Am I the only one unimpressed by this image? Is my "artistic" sense that much out of sync?

Click to expand...

Rachel, you are not wrong.

I reckon the OP has been visually seduced by the little tree, the piece of bridge next to it, and the sunlit patch just a little further along. I'm guessing, but it looks like the plane of focus goes through the tree and the lens aperture is simply too wide to carry the depth of field to the far end of the bridge. This is an uncomfortable compromise that people who hand hold cameras often have to make.

Bridges, like stairs or doorways, are evocative things that invite the viewer to mentally traverse them. At the peril of being a smart alec this is what I would have done: Put the camera on a tripod and stop the lens down so the bridge is all sharp. Better still I would use tilt on a view camera to capture the bridge texture, splinter by splinter, from the first board to the last, in the Scheimpflug plane.

Maris, I admire your response. It has made me want to use a view camera to capture wood splinters on a bridge somewhere, and maybe buy some Velvia

I agree with you Rachel, this composition does nothing for me. I feel as though not very much effort was involved, a quick stop to snap the bridge before one crosses over it. The landscape does grab me however, it reminds me of all the times I walked about in the same general area, Washington.

...and the poster is no longer here.

Click to expand...

I am not exactly sure what that means, but in the event Erik will read this..... the dynamic range of this picture is much better than that of the pictures we have previously discussed, where I had noted the shadows and highlights were more towards grey than black and white.

Thank you. I was becoming worried that I was entirely clueless. I've shot many bridges as I find them fascinating. I'll post one in another thread.