Rocky Mountains

[Jason ON]

This image was taken December 25th from the Cherry Creek State Park in Denver, Colorado. The buildings are about 5 miles west of the park and the mountains are another 30 or so.

I tried cropping it here and there, but nothing seemed to make the image look better.

[drg]

This is one of those photographs that really contains two or three photogaphs. Many times we see a great tableu in front of us and have to make a decision about what to include. And many times we just try to put it all into one image. I believe that's what's happened here. Certainly an interesting Christmas Day offering!

You have the possibility of a great scenic shot of the mountains and sky, the skyline of that portion of Denver against the the Range, and the people. At least three shots.

For the people to be workable, you would needed to have been much closer to capture some element of what they were doing or how they were interacting with the surroundings and dogs? I do see dogs don't I?

For the Scenic shot most of the trees and building should be gone so the colors and tones highlight the sky and the snow capped peaks.

For the skyline shot I'd suggest no trees, the building should be in the immediate foreground and thus be the primary element with the Range being the backdrop with little or no sky at all.

A lot of what I'm suggesting is based on your probably being in a slightly different position or using the camera's viewfinder to compose slightly differently. This is a case where the old saw about "if your pictures are not good enough, you aren't close enough" might apply particularly with the people.

There are just too many elements at once. That area provides some tremendous opportunities for phenomenal photos. Practice and concentrate on individual components such as one mountain peak or the corner of one building against the sky and a mountain. Or just watch the light change over the course of an hour across the face of the Mountain Range and try and capture a few of the changes.

Look forward to seeing some more of this area. Denver and the Rockies has always been one of my favorites at any time of the year.

Best wishes, good luck, and show us some more.

[LeeIs]

wow, what to add. Drg said it all and well IMO. I agree with him, there's just so many things going on here.
Also, I've come to hate tree branches and electrical wires, they've ruined many shots for me. I try to avoid them like the plague.

[Jason ON]

Thanks for in the info. I took this shot with a 300mm lense as we were leaving the park and as I said, I tried cropping it a couple of different ways, but nothing seemed to work for me. I like the people and the buildings and the mountains all together. It really shows the dramatic backdrop of the mountains for us here in Denver.

Leels, I too dislike treebranches and powerlines, but when I tried cropping them out the mountain range seemed to lose it's balance.

Thanks for the replies!