Lost Mine & Juniper Canyon

[TJ Avery]

Here's another one from Big Bend National Park (Texas). This was taken at the end of the Lost Mine Trail in the Chisos Mountains. The end of the trail peaks out at about 6850 feet - about 1100 vertical feet above the trailhead.

The view looks south over Juniper Canyon. The land far off on the horizon is Mexico and almost one vertical mile below.

This photo was taken about one year ago during a week-long visit to the park. I'm actually leaving today to journey out there again

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Hi TJ,

This is an impressive landscape. There is a lot of 3D and "pop" to the image. And the clouds are very nice too. The only nitpick I have is the blue/cyan cast on the RHS of the picture.

So assuming you are over there again right now, I am looking forward to see more when you come back.

Thanks for showing.

 

[Asher Kelman]

I must admit I read, "Lost mine in Juniper Canyon!" and thought this was a romantic episode, LOL! Cutting away the bottom half of the picture converts the image to a more powerful panorama. The problem with the picture as is, at least to me, is that the foreground is to well drawn and detailed and overwhelms the picture.

The point of the picture is beauty. Much of that requires a quick succession of layers from her to the farthest hills, so that one traverses a life span in a glance. One cannot do this when one is stuck in the complexity of the foreground. If there is detail, one cannot easily ignore it.

With the bottom part removed, the picture spreads along a beautiful landscape from rocky our growths across valleys to the distant layered mountains. Then the picture is impressive and enjoyable.

Thanks for sharing!

Asher

 

[TJ Avery]

Thanks for your replies, Cem & Asher. I greatly appreciate it.

The photo has always bugged me a little, and I do agree with Asher's comment. I think it's just a little too much detail in one composition. Not sure about the cyan cast - it's never bugged me before until you pointed it out, Cem. Thanks for that j/k The cast isn't nearly as noticeable in the print.

But I hang onto it as one of my favorites because of what it means to other people. I post my shots from Big Bend on a forum for fans of Big Bend (http://www.bigbendchat.com). When I posted that photo on the forum about a year ago, it received a lot of feedback (the emotional type; that forum isn't a photography forum), and I got several requests for prints from members of that forum.

I'm not trying to prove that it's a good photo (maybe so, maybe not - it's up to the viewer), but I want to point out the value of a photo, generally speaking, versus the quality of a photo.

To the Big Bend fans, seeing that photo is much like you seeing a bad photo of a beloved family member. You will treasure that photo despite bad lighting, poor composition, softness, etc. (i.e. it's not a good quality photo).

This is something that I miss often in my own photography. I often don't take a shot because the light isn't right or I can't work out the composition that I want. But given the right audience (particularly non-photographer types), any shot of subject X will be of some value to them.

I guess where I'm going with this is to know your audience. From my experience with Big Bend and the fans of Big Bend, they will connect better with a well executed snapshot than a world class fine art photo.

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I've been out and busy with work and dealing with the damage that hurricane Ike left us here in Houston. I've finally had a chance to process and upload some of my photos from our recent trip to Big Bend (which was 1 week before Ike hit us).

The composition I originally posted is one that first I shot four years ago. I decided that I'd shoot the same composition each time I visited that place, and in several years time, I'd have an interesting collection of photos of the same scene shot at different times and seasons. So far, I've been up there four times.

So, just for fun, here's nearly the same shot taken earlier this month during our recent trip:

Of course I shoot in many other spots while I'm at it Here's a new composition from the same location: