Yellowstone and Tetons to Critique

[bjtindle]

Here are some photos taken during vacation beginning 6/8/04. Hope you like! Small note about the first picture, it has been cropped and it isn't warped, it was very windy that day!!

[Photo-John]

I like the first one the most. That spindly, sad tree gives the photo character that the others are missing. I think having a third element in a landscape is important. I usually like to have some human reference like a person or building. But some people can get it done with purely natural elements. I think you've done a good job of that with the first photo.

The other photos all seem sort of snapshot-like and unfinished to me. The second one has a blatantly tilted horizon. There's no excuse for that. It's way too easy to fix with software. And all but the first are sort of flat and lifeless. They faithfully record a place, but they don't show how the parts of the scene relate to each other. They're flat and don't draw me in. The one that was shot through the trees has promise, but it's not quite there. Like the others, I think it needs one more element to make it more dynamic.

I haven't seen any of your posts before so I'd like to welcome you to the site. I saw that you've also posted a bunch of photos in the gallery. Thanks for sharing. Hopefully people will help out and share their opinions and experience with you. I am happy to have a new person from one of the last remaining wild states in the US. I love Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Colorado, and Utah. Those are the part of the US that's probably closest to my heart. I love the West and I love the high country. Keep showing it to me and try to show me how you love it.

[bjtindle]

I like the first one the most. That spindly, sad tree gives the photo character that the others are missing. I think having a third element in a landscape is important. I usually like to have some human reference like a person or building. But some people can get it done with purely natural elements. I think you've done a good job of that with the first photo.

The other photos all seem sort of snapshot-like and unfinished to me. The second one has a blatantly tilted horizon. There's no excuse for that. It's way too easy to fix with software. And all but the first are sort of flat and lifeless. They faithfully record a place, but they don't show how the parts of the scene relate to each other. They're flat and don't draw me in. The one that was shot through the trees has promise, but it's not quite there. Like the others, I think it needs one more element to make it more dynamic.

I haven't seen any of your posts before so I'd like to welcome you to the site. I saw that you've also posted a bunch of photos in the gallery. Thanks for sharing. Hopefully people will help out and share their opinions and experience with you. I am happy to have a new person from one of the last remaining wild states in the US. I love Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Colorado, and Utah. Those are the part of the US that's probably closest to my heart. I love the West and I love the high country. Keep showing it to me and try to show me how you love it.

I like the first one and the one through the trees the most. Can I ask what you mean by "snapshot"? I have seen the term but all my life we took "snapshots" so not sure what you mean. (Really new to this). I would have put a person in the picture but was by myself on this trek. (Which was a mistake I found out, if only for my sanity).
How could I have changed the one thru the trees? Tilted horizon? Wasn't on purpose and to be truthful I didn't even notice it until you mentioned it. How do you relate photos to each other, scene-wise if you will? I drove along the edge of the lake for miles and these were places I stopped. Point me in the right direction please! All help welcome.

As for living in Wyoming, I am proud to live here! I lived in Montana as a child too. In Butte. I love living up here. I would give my right eye tooth if I had been in to photography when I first moved here and I saw the man on the horse at the drive-in at a local saloon. Yes, at the drive-in window. Only here, but that is what makes it so special. I truly love it up here.

Thanks so much for the comments. Comment on the pics in the gallery too....I have said before, there is no place nearby for me to get feedback so I get it here for the most part. Thanks!

Betty