Amber Waves of Grain

Gallery: LandscapePosted January 8, 20189,566 views7 comments

Thank you for your comments on my previous image. I have a couple others I may show later, but for now we've moved back in to the meadow and headed back towards the car. The south side of El Capitan Meadow is still in shadow and frost was still present in the grasses.

This is a bit tighter and more intimate shot of a specific grass - more like some kind of grain? I have no idea. I tried to emphasize the frosty tips as well as the warmth of the stalks. This is a 5 image focus stack. And as I'm learning, especially with these grass images or anything with lots of detail - like leaves, the scene has to be perfectly still for stacking to work.

Small crop from the original.

Curious to your thoughts and reaction. As always I appreciate your honest critiques and suggestions.

Thanks!

Lon

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Harley Goldman on January 8, 2018 at 1:25 PM

Real nice, Lon! You do have an eye for grasses and trees. You sure do them extremely well.

Registered on November 19, 2003, 586 Posts, 11271 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on January 8, 2018 at 4:11 PM

Looks like amber got frosted a bit, Lon. This would be a fun view of these grasses without the frost, but the frost adds some fine contrast that lets the seed heads stand out well. The curved stems add a good sense of the wind blowing (even if it wasn't). You can stack views like this with some motion, but the "clean up" of the stacked view becomes very long and tedious.

Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments

Comment posted by Igor Doncov on January 9, 2018 at 12:04 AM

The lacy design of repeated arcs of grass ends makes for a very appealing composition. This is mostly true of the upper image. A crop of the upper 2/3rds is what I would go for. When you include the lower stalks it becomes more about the plants and the comp starts to look crowded. Even though the lower stalks are covered with frost I would burn the white group on the right and add warm colors to it. My reasoning is that this is about the lace and the stalks are providing a supporting role. At the bottom they start to dominate and I would work against that. Just my opinion of course (your mileage may vary).

PS. It's been 3 hours now and I'm having 2nd thoughts about my statements. Sorry for appearing wishy washy but I'm like that with my own work as well.

Registered on November 22, 2014, 189 Posts, 2733 Comments

Comment posted by Harry Lichtman on January 9, 2018 at 10:40 AM

The mix of frosted grain is a nice contrast with the yellows. The intimate view is fine as presented. Leafy images, flowers or grains for that matter can work can work with focal stacking. Just use a fast enough shutter speed so they don't blur. It may take a bit of manual work with layers, but there is some flexibility with leaves and such that you can creatively blend together and have it look very natural. The problem come if there are large spaces between the flower stalks or similar. With dense patches, it is much easier.

Registered on September 17, 2010, 304 Posts, 3507 Comments

Comment posted by Silvia Richter on January 9, 2018 at 1:27 PM

Really nice work for me, Lon. The diagonals, curves and subtle details of the frost make for an appealing composition that I enjoy a lot.

I am just drawn to suggest a crop from the top with the kind of "empty space" in the upper right corner. Thereby the delicate patterns would fill in the frame more homogeneously I think. Only a matter of personal taste of course.

Thanks for sharing this beautiful intimate scene.

Silvia

Registered on February 27, 2011, 18 Posts, 167 Comments

Comment posted by Dave Dillemuth on January 9, 2018 at 8:41 PM

Beautiful crafted, Lon. You are a king of these intimate scenes. Reminds me of a bamboo forest. Wonderful subtle tones and great textures.

Registered on December 10, 2015, 104 Posts, 1112 Comments

Comment posted by Ed Lowe on January 10, 2018 at 2:14 PM

The details really shine when opening up the large view, Lon. The graceful sweep of the grasses is very appealing as is the coating of frost. The earth tones impart a nice sense of harmony to this intimate landscape . My only suggestion; just my personal preference; would be a small crop from the top to eliminate the couple of bare areas in the UL and URC. Either way great eye to spot this beauty.

Ed

Registered on February 7, 2004, 414 Posts, 7115 Comments