Panorama of Pont d'Arc

Hi Folks,

It's been a week since I'm back from my summer holidays in Southern France. I have promised to share some photos with you, so here comes the first one.

One of the famous "tourist traps" is Pont d'Arc: a beautiful natural arch formed on the river Ardeche. We have been there at noon time (unfortunately) and the place was full of people and the light was harsh and horrible. Nevertheless, I took many shots, 6 of which have resulted in this panorama. What do you think?



Cheers,

Hi Cem,

You're in a pano mode, I'm, as usual, in a crop mode (or a crap mood ;-)

On my monitor your image is 29.5 cm wide (excluding the frame) I would throw away the lhs (as I look at it, most of he sad black rock) so that the image was 20.5 cm wide. The cloud shape sort of then balances the sand. I may then clone brush away some of the people, maybe mess around with some other stuff (shadow/highlight, lighten the rock, darken the trees to rhs). As it is there is an awkward bit of sky to my left, and the top chopped off black rock sort of is a distraction. Or maybe I'd go a couple of cm wider, clone away the top of the rock. Finally, I'd probably leave it as your original version, but its maybe worth a try ;-)

Best wishes,

Ray

Hi Ray,

You definitely know how to put a smile on my face .
Actually, many of your observations are quite valid. It was not my intention to have this pano as a keeper, I have just started playing around with it and it came into its own "existence".

As far as crops go, this one is the best I can offer (not a crop from the pano obviously):



Cheers,

Hello Cem

Glad you had a good holiday, I like the image you've created, it captures the feel of the place perfectly, which at the end of the day has to be one of the most important points of a photograph, the people add scale and contribute to the happy mood of the image, if I were there I would have sandals in hand and paddle around to the LHS and find somewhere shadey to sit and read a book, this is a very nice mood your image has left me with.

Possibly a shame that the top of the hill is clipped, but in my opinion the mood is more important. Thank you for sharing.

Hi,

I like both these images Cem. The composition in the portrait image really draws my eye through the frame, to the arch and beyond. Like Janet I really like the mood in the pano image, but find the clipping of the hill on the left a bit 'awkward'.

I've been fortunate enough to have paddled the Ardeche on holiday, including going under Pont D'Arc, but it was about 10 years ago and my memories have faded - your images have brought them all back! Thanks for sharing.

Cem,

Your pictures are fascinating. They do present a dilemma in how to approach such wonders. I have yearned for the opportunity to photograph a particular young woman, thinking she was stunning. Well one day she was sharing water ski holiday photos and I was horrified to see her face had a disproportionately bold jaw that dominated her face. I immediately felt, "This is a human horse!"

Why the disparity?

I think we look at things in different ways to get a whole idea of what we think of things. That girl, in fact has a special charm and warm bubbly personality that overshadowed her actual out-of-balance chin. Her animated smiles and attention to anyone else's needs made here so attractive. Unfortunately none of these multifaceted personality traits easily gets into a two-dimensional photograph.

A great portraitist would have the challenge to do just that! No doubt that's the test of mastery of the art.

The same with Pont d'Arc. Your light, as you point out was not optimum. The framing was not sufficiently generous to allow for studied cropping to perfect the view in your Monitor's studio. The arch is stunning, and must be so impressive to see in three-dimensional grandeur, however, it's not an easy shot for a vacationer! We have very gourmet standards for MacDonald’s opportunities.

As a vacationer, one cannot totally ignore one's family to spend the time needed. This stone bridge needs to be scouted and viewed from different angles at various times of the day and with different skies. Ansel Adams set a high standard for such epic natural wonders. He would spend hours even months or years on one location. However we look at someone's picture for initially 2-30 seconds and have no choice but to compare it with famous masterpieces engraved in our brains.

I think you did a marvelous job given the setting you were found in. In fact when I saw your first picture, my first feeling was jealousy! The technical defects therefore don't really bother me a lot. In fact the right side of the picture beyond the bridge, rescues the scene considerably.

Asher.

Janet and Andrew; thanks a million for your kind words, you really have lightened my day .

Asher,

Your post contains, as usual, such thought provoking content that I don't know how to do justice to it in my humble reaction. Maybe the first things first, thanks a lot .

Re. the circumstances under which this picture was taken, I'll give you some extra info. Almost at the beginning of our holiday, I have hurt my back very badly. One of the discs in my lower spine (the one between L5 and S1 if I understood correctly) has decided to do some sightseeing in its neighborhood and you can imagine the rest. I was lying on my back for more than 3 days, fully sedated with pain killers and muscle relaxants. Afterwards, I became “mobile” to the extent that I could walk like a zombie. Bending, flexing, picking things up from ground, lifting weights, etc. were impossible to do. Walking around extensively looking for better vantage points, etc. were things I could only do in my dreams. So I have become something worse than a fast food junkie. I have become a zombie shooter, going with the flow (to the places wherever and whenever my wife would drive me there, LOL). I am not trying to excuse myself for the mediocre picture. As I wrote to Ray, this is by far not one of the better pictures I have taken (luckily). I have some other, worthier, pictures that I’ll put up for C&C in due time. Mostly, they are landscapes, cityscapes and portraits. But back to the topic right now.

“Gourmet standards for MacDonalds opportunities”… what can I say? I think that this is one of the best quotes I’ve heard in a long while. Yes there I was, dreaming of shooting a picture worthy of an Adams (yeah, dream on). The arch would be worthy of such a photo, it really is beautiful. However, its beauty was tainted with many specimens of the infamous homo touristicus and the sun was torching the scenery like Dante’s hell. The only miserable hope I had was that I’d not left home without my circ.pol. filter <LOL>.

So was I in a mood to think about not cropping the top of that nasty hill? No, of course not. I was so “hungry” that I could only attack the fast food presented to me with both hands, forget the manners and cutlery. I only had some minutes to devour it all, before I had to get back in the car.

I am still contemplating the challenge of the mastery of art. I am a perfectionist and tend to be stubborn at times. So this whole holiday was from that perspective a trial of my patience and hard learned wisdom ;-).

Have a fantastic day!

Cheers,
__________________

Cem, I have to agree with Asher, and he can obviously say it a lot better than I can. What an amazing place, I have never seen an image from here, wow really wonderful. It is good to know that there are others out there with the same dilemmas and frustrations. Ohh how I wished I had more time for photography!

Al

Hi Allen,

Thanks a lot for your kind reaction, I appreciate it. We have indeed too little time available to pursue our harts' interests.

Cheers,

Cem Uslaki said:

Asher,

Your post contains, as usual, such thought provoking content that I don't know how to do justice to it in my humble reaction. Maybe the first things first, thanks a lot .........

Re. the circumstances under which this picture was taken, I'll give you some extra info. Almost at
“Gourmet standards for MacDonalds opportunities”… what can I say? I think that this is one of the best quotes I’ve heard in a long while............

Yes there I was, dreaming of shooting a picture worthy of an Adams (yeah, dream on). The arch would be worthy of such a photo, it really is beautiful. However, its beauty was tainted with many specimens of the infamous homo touristicus and the sun was torching the scenery like Dante’s hell. The only miserable hope I had was that I’d not left home without my circ.pol. filter <LOL>.

Click to expand...

“Gourmet standards for MacDonalds opportunities”! I really like that phrase since it's a kind of immunization against reluctance to do extensive darkroom work. Previously we cloned out dust spots or litter. Now our hands have longer reach, LOL!

If what the camera recorded includes what's not in your romantic mind, hey, those points of light go! Photography is not only about composing a scene, it's also about excluding what you don't wish to show, unless you are a photographing for science, criminology or for bombing targets!

Cem Uslaki said:

.............I am still contemplating the challenge of the mastery of art. I am a perfectionist and tend to be stubborn at times.

Click to expand...

Such mastery is elusive for most of us. However Part of the required skill set has always been darkroom work. There's nothing un-masterful in swopping skies, lighting rocks or sharpenning foreground flowers and one butterfly. It's cheaper than waiting long enough for the sky or altering the plane of focus with a lens you don't even own!

If we have a good idea of what we want and cannot technically do it, then a great retoucher can do it for us, under our guidance. That's, after all, what happens when we print to CMYK in a print house!

Too many tourists? Remove them!

Wrong sky? Swap it with a sky you photographed after a storm or at sunset!

One only uses a scene for the starting point of a picture. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, unless they are photographing houses for the lowest end of the housing market!

Call me a heretic, perhaps, but, IMHO, we can do what we wish short of purloining other people's work~! It's all drawing with light, all "photography"!

Asher