Yet all experience is an arch . . . (w/repost)
by Steve Foss
"Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untraveled world whose margin fades
Forever and forever when I move."
"Ulysses," Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The passage from this poem, one of my all time most cherished works of literary art, immediately passed through my mind when I saw this image.
It is not a photograph of autumn color through a window in a geological arch formation, though it looks somewhat like that. It's a reflection from a still pool in the Little Indian Sioux River a few days ago.
Sorry it's so small and perhaps not as rich with detail is it could be. I had to size it to 550 pixels across and save for Web at only 65 percent to get it below the 200 Kb limit.
Canon 5D, Canon 17-40 f4L at 30mm, iso400, 1/8 at f11, tripod, remote shutter release, MLU
Comments
42 commentsPaolo
I also seem to often get it a little wrong with saturation/levels here. It either seems too dark or too light. On my monitor after posting, this image looks washed out and too light, so in this repost I sharpened the reflection and added a bit of saturation and darker levels.
Hopefully the repost is better in both respects.
The reflection itself is so calm and crisp that I was lulled into thinking that this was captured through a rock opening.
Your intro. was excellent, too. The repost looks better to my eye.
Really fine work all the way around!
This is great. The sharpened/saturated re-post definitely looks the best on my monitor (a Samsung 226BW / 22" / 1680 x 1050). It looks great.
Neat idea and congrats on seeing it through and capturing it.
Monitor matter aside, I love this image. the cooler tones of the rock around the pool force your eyes to focus on the fantastic colours in the foliage. Well spotted and executed!
gio
I know what you mean about the size. Many of my 4x5 scans have to be presented at less than 50% fit the size limits.
Truly stunning and excellent job at capturing this!
Every long once in a while an image strikes me here on NPN that really captivates me. Like other's comments, it took me a moment to figure out and absorb what I was seeing and the passage you included really makes this a complete package. Not only is this beautifully captured, your crop is perfect in that it really creates the feeling of a "window" or an arch to another time or place. And for some reason, because I read to quickly, I thought the frame was broken ice, but now I see that it's rock.
Without going on and on, this is a unique and captivating image. Impressive imagery.
Lon
I did not expect such a response. I almost never post in ESS because there's so much phenomenal talent in here I inevitably look at what I have to offer, compare it to what's posted here and feel like a bit of an ugly duckling surrounded by swans.
I've been trying at this river for an image like this for three years. So many things had to come together. The water had to be so low there were pools instead of flowing water. The fall color had to be just right along its banks. It had to be a sunny day. It had to be calm enough that the wind didn't ruffle the surface of the pool. I was also hampered by my full-time job, which I chucked last summer to pursue photography full time.
Sunday, when I was leading a group excursion of a Minneapolis photo club and we pulled up at the trailhead near the river, I hoped it was just such a day. And it turned out to be so.
I want to thank each and every one of you for your kind comments and a few of you for your constructive sharing of ways to make the image a bit better. I am grateful that you took time out of your day to look at this and to evaluate it.
You people are champs!
Extrodinary work
If you have any probs, drop me an e-mail
-Todd