image critique

1.) I think this is a really cool photograph. I believe that it could have either been better cropped out or more light brought upon the upper layer of the fog. It has some great shape and formation and I think needs to be focused on a little more to make the picture complete. The vibrancy is lacking and the multitude of colors could be brought out more.


2.) This looks like a giant prehistoric turtle. The clarity of the picture is not the best in about half of it moving from the bottom left to the top right. This definitely puts the focus on the main large rock itself, but I feel that he could've just simply cropped out the initial sand and smaller rocks instead.


3.) This is a really cool capture of wildlife in motion. The front half of the squirrel is in focus because of the high ISO and Shutter Speed he used. I really enjoy this one and how detailed the squirrel is in its face and feet.

Recently I've been interested in and looking into "hiking the triple crown." The triple crown are the three major hikes across the United States, the Appalachian Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, and the Pacific Crest Trail. I think that all of them would be an awesome experience filled with beautiful scenery and a calm serenity. Each place would consist of their own unique picturesque areas that would be fantastic for photographing. Being from Pennsylvania and near the Appalachian Mountains, I am somewhat biased and think they may offer the best scenery offering beautiful green rolling hills and trees in the summer, wonderful color in the fall, gorgeous snowfall in winter, and amazing flora in the spring.

Winter on the Appalachian Trail

Fall on the Appalachian Trail

The Blue Ridge Mountains on the Appalachian Trail

This is a picture of the Appalachian Trail in October

editing attempt

This was my first attempt at editing using lightroom 5. I first used whatever the program thought that the picture should look like and then did a little manipulation of my own. This picture is of the Grand Tetons from a trip during Fall break 2012. I really wanted to bring out the sunset between the peaks and focused a lot on that area. Unfortunately, my camera is not of very high quality. Thus, the photo is not as good if it was a better more expensive equipment. For example, it is very noisy and grainy regardless of my attempts to minimize it.

Abelardo Morell and camera obscura

Today I was on the National Geographic webpage and came across these really interesting photographs by Abelardo Morell that incorporated the ground as the canvas for the shots. I thought this to be a really interesting concept and idea. This idea takes away from the beauty of the subject and makes the photograph much busier. Yet, it is a fascinating idea that creates something entirely different that is really cool. This sparked my interest into this type of photography and led me to the concept of camera obscura. I still don't fully understand how this works, but plan on doing more research on it. From what I have gained, it seems like a long and difficult process but it creates something completely new and you gain an entirely different perspective and opinion.
 http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/10/morell-parks/morell-photography#/01-turret-arch-arches-670.jpg

These are a couple of Abelardo Morell's photographs that I really like

Scotland landscapes

These pictures are from a United Kingdom photographer Ian Cameron. These are just a couple of his photographs from Scotland.


 

#1

http://www.smugmug.com/community/NaturePhotographers/popular/all#!i=427709767&k=ga2To&lb=1&s=A

Canon 5D 400mm f/5.6 ISO250 1/2000s Av Priority -1/3EV

This is a really cool photograph. The focus is on the bear and the fish. This fish is moving fast and was caught pretty well with details, due to a higher shutter speed. The water is not in full focus but you can still see the crispness and it freezes some of it.

#2

http://www.smugmug.com/community/NaturePhotographers/popular/all#!i=313575481&k=iSaoJ&lb=1&s=A

Canon 5D 17mm f/22 ISO100 1.6s Av Priority -1/3EV

This is a neat picture. The water is out of focus and appears to be a time laps. It can't be a windy day because the leaves and tree branches are very still and easy to capture.

#3

http://www.smugmug.com/community/NaturePhotographers/popular/all#!i=1095723618&k=5WsmsRF&lb=1&s=A

Canon 5DII 17mm f/11 ISO200 1.3s Manual

This picture is really awesome. The shutter speed used allows the photographer to capture the water in this form. He also used a low ISO setting giving it a longer exposure.

#4

http://www.smugmug.com/community/NaturePhotographers/popular/all#!i=1831531763&k=4Kf7Mcw&lb=1&s=A

Canon 5DII 85mm f/1.8 10s ISO100 Manual

This picture is very detailed. It actually appears that it may be a composite. The clouds in within the mountains do not appear to be natural all across.

#5

http://bumpitup.smugmug.com/popular/732133725_MzzZX#!i=519762850&k=mNuWM&lb=1&s=A

Canon 1DIII 28mm f/13 ISO200 HDR 

This picture was not framed according to the grid format. The thermal feature should be higher and centered better. Also, the thermal feature in the back right, takes away from the main focus, and I believe should be cropped out of this particular picture.

#6 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlw/5743158761/in/photostream

Canon 1DIV 840mm f/5.6 ISO400 1/800

The photographer used a lower ISO setting to get this bird in focus. The color of the bird attracts the attention and does not allow the eyes to wonder. The branches surrounding the bird do a good job with framing the picture.

#7

http://www.pbase.com/jleom/image/145185197

Canon 7D 500mm f/4.5 ISO1600 1/320

The photographer used a high ISO setting to be able to capture this. With the bear moving across the rock, it splashes up the water, which is caught pretty well, and keeps the trout in focus. Yet, because the photographer was focused on stopping the action, the picture is not very focused.

#8

http://www.mangelsen.com/store/util/enlarge_popup?Args=&imgsrc=3083.jpg

Nikon D4 

This is a really cool picture. The colors are attracting and very vibrant. It leads up to the mountains and comes back down with the sunlight in the top left corner.

#9

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6548455

Canon 1DII 500mm f/8.0 1/500

The photographer used a higher ISO to stop the image. Although the entire body of the bird is not in focus, such as the wing tips.

#10

http://500px.com/photo/842621

Nikon D2x 12mm f/6.3 ISO200 1/400
This picture does a great job with framing. The main and center focus is on the closer polar bear. This picture also includes the elements of framing, the foreground, mid ground with the ice and water, horizon and background with the other bear, and also includes the sky and clouds to finish the frame.

Beartooth Mountains

These were a couple of my more favorite photos from the backpacking trip in the Beartooth Mountains last year.