October Watchman

Well that's pretty sweet for conditions that weren't remarkable. I'd be stretching to find something to criticize. There does seem to be unnatural smudginess in the clouds on the right side and top... perhaps due to some burning of hot spots? The rest looks spot on beautiful.

I like this a lot, Jared. Nice light/beautiful colors. Great to see a view of the Watchman that's different from the bridge icon shot. Processing looks good to me. I just would have liked just a pinch more space at the bottom, if that was possible, but this is gorgeous as is.

Jared, My thoughts are...Wonderful! A beautiful view with such nice light and color. Just a bit more room on the bottom works for me too, but that is a very small thing to the overall image. Excellent work!

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

Jared, I agree with Scott's comments. Also, there appears to be a bright spot of sky in the leaves on the left. A refreshing view.

Great shot Jared with some beautiful light and color in the trees and a very nice comp as well. Tiny nit is the bright spot in the top of the left side trees. Wonderful job on this.

Nice take on the Watchman, Jared. I think you did quite well with this icon I like it a lot.

I'd bring the whites down a touch in the sky Jared but that's my only suggestion. Love the comp and the mood of the image. Beautiful image.

pat

I give up. There are some very bright clouds in the image, but I think there must have been bright clouds in the sky. I don't know if it would be a mistake or not to go for a little more detail there. It depends on how gently you can be working on that. Very subjectively, to me there seems to be something "muddy" about the colors of the reflections of the trees, but I imagine you just captured what was there. I wonder if that's what you mean when you say the conditions were unremarkable. That's about as picky as I can be, and I really had to work on that. I would be very happy with this image.

Wonderful light and beautiful autumn color, Jared. Super composition too. If this were mine, I might try and bring down the highlights in the clouds a tad, perhaps seeing what Tony Kuyper's "triple play" would do to bring a bit more detail/contrast in the clouds. Just a thought of course. Nice.

Wonderful light on the trees and Watchman...takes me there immediately. More detail in the clouds might be nice, but it is gorgeous as is.

Beautiful light and nice colors, too. I especially love the glowing trees. Excellent image

This was last week? I don't recall seeing a cloud in the sky all last week except overcast skies on the weekend.

I like the "non-iconic" vantage point. As Scott commented, a little more room at the bottom would have been a slight improvement to the composition. You know ... one thing that sometimes bugs me about photographs of The Watchman ... it often looks like it is leaning to the right, as if the camera is not level even when it is, and the image seems to benefit from a slight CCW rotation. I've noticed this with many of my photographs of The Watchman.

Love the lighting in this Jared, the vibrant autumnal foliage goes brilliantly with the red rock and blue sky. Really great capture.

Gary.

Great capture, wonderful colors, light and detail. No suggestions on that.
My only question is: would it have been even better without cutting the top of the mountain's reflection?

A really beautiful capture Jared,
I love the light on the watchman and cottonwoods, I believe these are cottonwoods. The foreground brings one into the image, and the lower vantage point works really well. I also would like to see some of the whites in the clouds down just a bit, but beautiful as is.

I like it a lot. The clouds look fine to me, not blown.
I just might have liked a bigger frame that 35mm, but I am not sure what you had to work with.

Hi Jared. Comp is fine, might be a bit better with the summit of Watchman showing in water. Again, good as is. Processing..Use a big ND filter and shoot a SLOW shutter speed for the water foreground. The water looks "nervous" as is. A smoother slower shutter speed or "Golden foreground" ND look would sing. Hand blend that foreground to a properly exposed Watchman. There's some blown out highlights in the sky cloud cover on my monitor. Its my opinion the conditions of this scene were there for you to make an amazing image. Its not like you can't go back for this one to nail it!!

Its an icon for a reason, and this shot shows why. I think you have plenty of cottonwood backlit color here.

Nice job man. I am glad people are actually starting to get off the bridge and hoofing it to get original! Nice job.