First Photo

Gallery: LandscapePosted June 15, 2011175 views14 comments

Hello,

I'm a new member; been lurking for a few weeks and finally decided to jump in. The quality of the photos on this forum is intimidating, but that can only push me to improve, as will your feedback I'm sure.

I'm relatively new to digital photography (though not to photography itself); I only transitioned in 2008, and have yet to really have a good grasp of the post-processing techniques.

I'm currently processing photos from my mid-April trip to the Southwest (Central/Northern Arizona and Southeastern Utah). It was my second trip to the area. While last year I was blessed with great conditions overall (snow, rain, interesting clouds...) this year I got mostly haze and rather featureless skies, but still had a wonderful time there.

This photo from a remote location in Arizona was taken during an exceptional few hours when I got some clouds in the sky. I hope you'll enjoy it and help me improve with your feedback.

Thanks in advance.

Joe

Comments

14 comments

Comment posted by Michael J Greene, on June 15, 2011 at 10:45 PM

Welcome to NPN Joe. That's a great bit of processing you accomplished. The depth of field, color, and sharpness all look fantastic. Your comp is sweet too. Looking forward to seeing more.

Michael

Registered on June 18, 2009, 86 Posts, 2317 Comments

Comment posted by Joe Abounader on June 15, 2011 at 10:51 PM

Thank you Michael for the encouragement and warm welcome.

Registered on June 15, 2011, 14 Posts, 58 Comments

Comment posted by John Williams on June 16, 2011 at 12:34 AM

Welcome Joe! Great patterns in the earth. The lines flowing to the back and raised area work well. Is that a contrail on the right in the sliver of blue? Maybe not, but if so I always feel comfortable cloning those out.

Registered on September 6, 2007, 221 Posts, 5985 Comments

Comment posted by Neale Dyster on June 16, 2011 at 6:00 AM

Nice first post Joe. Processing looks good to me and a pleasing image. I'm sure you'll learn a lot from the people of this site,
I know I have. Keep 'em coming!

Registered on February 19, 2008, 94 Posts, 738 Comments

Comment posted by Yiming Hu on June 16, 2011 at 11:11 AM

Welcome Joe. I like the patterns in the ground. The shapes of these clouds in the sky are not particular attractively to my taste, but they are certainly better than a featureless blue sky, so you were still lucky in that sense.

Registered on April 28, 2011, 38 Posts, 733 Comments

Comment posted by Phillip Noll on June 16, 2011 at 11:26 AM

Great sky and subject! Everything looks sharp and in focus. No nits from me! Welcom to NPN!

Registered on November 17, 2003, 207 Posts, 1083 Comments

Comment posted by Michael Lowe on June 16, 2011 at 12:17 PM

Processing looks great. I disagree with one of the posters about the clouds. They look fine to me.

Registered on February 11, 2004, 777 Posts, 5252 Comments

Comment posted by Sarah Marino on June 16, 2011 at 1:19 PM

Hi Joe- Welcome to NPN! I am always fascinated by images of this place and I like your image a lot. I like the clouds overall and think they frame the image nicely. I like your composition as well. A great start to becoming part of the NPN community!

Registered on November 10, 2008, 23 Posts, 393 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on June 16, 2011 at 3:56 PM

The wide-angle perspective works very nicely here and there is a trueness in color that is sometimes hard to find with digital photos. Nicely done all around. Glad to have you here.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments

Comment posted by Phil Pogledich on June 16, 2011 at 4:22 PM

The processing looks good to me, as does the composition and other elements of this image. Welcome to NPN! You could probably make a nice black and white out of this as well, if you were so inclined.

Registered on August 24, 2009, 123 Posts, 3099 Comments

Comment posted by Joe Abounader on June 16, 2011 at 7:02 PM

Thank you all for your kind comments and welcoming words.

John, you're right, this does seem like a contrail; I hadn't noticed it before. I looked at photos from the same area taken later that day, after the clouds had dissipated, and some had contrails.

Yiming, with regards to the clouds, it's a matter of taste as you indicate; I'm quite pleased with the ones I got.

Phil, re: black and white, it's a good suggestion, I might try it out later on. This is one area of processing where I have a lot to improve.

Once again, many thanks to you all for the feedback.

Registered on June 15, 2011, 14 Posts, 58 Comments

Comment posted by Koveh Tavakkol on June 16, 2011 at 11:46 PM

Welcome to the forums Joe. A great shot for your first post here. I really like your composition and the exposure looks perfect. Looking forward to seeing more form you!

Registered on September 1, 2009, 41 Posts, 608 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on June 17, 2011 at 12:43 AM

Joe,

Welcome to NPN and the Landscape/ESS Gallery! This is an excellent first post. I really like the solid composition that showcases the patterns and texture of the rock and it leads you nicely to the main formation and the very complimentary sky. Minor point about the contrail, but enough to mention... ;-) The light isn't dramatic, but it's not hurting anything either. This is a well crafted and captured landscape.

We look forward to more images and your participation in the forum and galleries.

Lon

Registered on November 24, 2006, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments

Comment posted by Joe Abounader on June 17, 2011 at 8:36 AM

Koveh and Lon, thank you very much for your feedback. Lon, I agree that the light is not dramatic, this was a late afternoon shot. I have more photos from the area taken at sunset and sunrise the next day, which I hope to post in the future, but the clouds were rare or non-existing, especially those from that evening. I'll try to clone out the contrail.

Cheers.

Joe

Registered on June 15, 2011, 14 Posts, 58 Comments