That's low

[GB1]

'Badwater' in Death Valley CA.

Lowest point in North America

[LeeIs]

Beautiful shot GB.

I really like your beautiful blue skies here. Also the sorta of three steps of mountain/hill ranges. The first one to the right the second ones slight behind and the background one. All kept relatively simple though, I'm pretty sure the background ones are much higher than this one to your right.

The sign is a great. I really like how it's against the water echoing the skies and not against some of the ground.

The way the sun is shining is really adding to shot also as you avoid any hard shadows cause the left is quite flat and there's nothing to cast any shadows except your subject. very nice.

A million thoughts came to my head when I saw this. Can't remember them all. Some: "bad water" hopefully is the name of the place, right? I wondered if this is the kinda shot that would work in the B&W as well as the colour, have you tried that?

One minor critique, I wish the sign was a bit more lit. But that's all. And it works great the way it is still. Nice one.

[swmdrayfan]

My original thought on this was maybe the picture could be cropped to have the Badwater sign more on the left side of the picture, but then you'd lose most of the distant mountain range. Good shot. I like it.

[payn817]

I see you shoot film, what kind did you use? The reason I ask is that I personally prefer KodakUC, and Fujifilm Superia (haven't tried slides yet), and the color is really bold. This film seems to have a more natural color, something I could use now and then.

Anyway, the tech stuff all looks great, but I just am not diggin this that much, probably just a personal thing though.

[juzzus]

The framing seems a little tight , perhaps a wider angle lens would have helped to create a more dynamic perspective n space needed between the sign and the water in the BG ...

[jar_e]

Great shot IMO. Almost a photojournalist/tourism board photo, a great shot. The sky, the water, it all adds up to a wonderful shot!

Well done,

Jared

[GB1]

THANKS for the comments! They're a little more positive than I expected ... I at first thought it was way too simple.

Leels, thanks especially for such a good critique. It looks like the sign had it's back truned to the sun It is actually a location in Death Valley that they named Badwater because it is where all the water drains down to (lowest pt) and mixes with the natural salt plains there. The water is hence extremely salty, unsuitable for drinking, much to the disappointment to the original folks passing through. There are some things living in it however, don't know what kind of animals/fish they are though.

And no, I've never shot DV in B&W, even though I've been there a half dozen times or more. Here's a desaturated version of the pic however.

Payn, this is Kodachrome 64. I'm one of its last holdouts. I also shoot Velvia and Kodak Vivid Saturuated, both which are also good, but sometimes they inject a little too much extra color to the scene. I've heard that digital color is decent, just not great. That's one of the few disadvantages of digital is seems - you can't change films to get different effects.

juzzus - I agree, it is a little tight... I guess the sign is a big part of the photo.

Thanks again, everyone,

GB

[GB1]

Oops. Here's the black and white.

GB

[julsoph]

This is a beautiful shot...but I agree that I'd prefer the sign a little bit more to the left. I'm finding myself trying to peer around it...lol.

I also prefer the color version to the b&w.
Emily

[dennylee60]

This is a nice shot. I really like the black and white version.

[dbutler]

I'd like the sign to be more secondary to the comp myself. More the left would work. I would prefer to be hit with the beauty of the place THEN catch the sign. And I prefer the color to the b&w. It's just so pretty.

[GB1]

Thanks Emily, Denny and D - The sign definitely takes over here, and I'm not sure if that's good or not. Next time I'm in badwater (probably this early spring, before it starts heating up) I'll try a wider shot. Maybe a panoramic one with several pics spliced together. This seems to be a good candidate for that type stuff..

Speaking of which, anyone ever done that? POST!

Gb