Just the Right Light

Beautiful sky and light

The light is beautiful. Perhaps images like this are popular with the general public due to the accessibility of the subject. The light, the color, the excellent reflections make this very attractive and when you add in the possibility of your audience seeing it in 'real life', maybe even being familiar with the scene, it becomes even more comfortable and desirable. Just a thought. I'll bet you sell a lot of this one.

Simple comp but effective because of the beautiful light and color, Zack. Nice work on the blend. Looks good to me.

The light looks nice. I was here (I think) several years ago but didn't get light this good and this is nice light.

Can't add much to what people like . . . or don't like. I think offering them options is the best recipe for finding something that meets their tastes.

Great light and mood. A simple but effective comp

Sweet light and a scene I never tire of seeing.

A beautiful scene Zack. As mentioned the light and color is very nice. The water looks great with the reflections too. Nice!

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

You're totally right about this one: the comp is nothing special but that sweet light really makes it work.

I remember about a year or so ago Mark Metternich passed along some sage advice he got from a really big-time photographer friend of his from Australia. The advice was, "Never shoot for photographers". That advice is spot on, and really gets at the heart of what you're talking about, Zack.

Oftentimes, the images that appeal to us photogs the most aren't the ones that sell the best.

It's amazing how important great light is. I was reading an article online (some type of online photography learning forum - not NPN of course) and the article actually went on to say that even in bad light, a good composition can savage a shot, implying that light really doesn't matter that much to the overall image. I naturally didn't keep reading the article.

I love images like this because they ground us in a way. We get so caught up in finding "the shot" we forget everything else, even to see the opportunities that seem not good enough at the time.

That all being said...I love the cool glow on the mountains and of course the light. Keep em coming! Love all your work.

Quite lovely. The dark shoreline is effective. I suggest perhaps cropping the top to eliminate the area of blue sky in the upper right corner. I think this results in a slightly more balanced composition.

Crop the top, man, and then PUMP up the saturation big time--supersaturation sells more prints, you know that

Love the touch of color in the sky and the lovely pattern of color in the water. Straightforward composition, but it works very well. Nice.

Interesting observations, Zack. The light is certainly exceptional here, and the composition is straightforward, as you mention. I have never really put any effort into trying to sell prints, since most of my work was to illustrate articles and books. Once in a while, however, people see one of my images in print or on the Web, and requests a print. That very limited experience, however, goes right along with what you said. Even though some people will say something like "That's really cool" about images with "camera tricks" like long exposures or wide-angle shots with out-of-proportion foreground objects, the ones they want to hang on the wall are the ones that depict more realistic and familiar scenes -- perhaps because of their relationship to a fond memory. Just last Friday, I got an award for a photo that won a "non-photographer's" contest, got a two-page spread in a magazine, and even sold a couple of prints (even though it was never advertized for sale). It is simply a familiar road-side view with nothing in the foreground, probably photographed by thousands of people, BUT with some colorful warm sunset rays on the clouds above the mountains. My guess is that the key is that it is a familiar scene that people want, but with beautiful light that they they remember admiring, but were unable to capture in a photograph. The average person just does not have the graduated filters, tripod, or processing software and tools to adequately capture many of the "great light" events that they love to see. (They will get a blurry, grainy low-light shot, either with a white sky or black landforms.) That's where your skill can bring back visions of their memories.

What else sells but aren't very popular on NPN, probably because of size limitations, are panoramics. Pans also fit walls better. This image would work great as a pan and I'm sure would do well. Beautiful shot Zack! Don't see any smoke but it probably contributed to the color.

Stan nailed it!