Piers Blackett
May 2025 - Island Trees
About the Image(s)
As part of a "scavenger hunt" in which no edits are allowed, the goal was to capture an image depicting "reflection", I saw an island in a small lake and found a gap in the trees along the trail at Martin Nature Park in Oklahoma City, a nice park designed with riparian habitat. I intentionally framed within a compositional frame of branches using an RF 24-105 zoom lens on a Canon R6II (with in body stabilization) at 70 mm. The settings were f/16, 1/60 sec, ISO 400 and focus was on the largest tree branch on the island. My usual inclination is to edit the same day, but now I'm uncertain. Also denoising does not seem indicated.
9 comments posted
Piers, I've long admired the images you present each month for discussion - the versatility of topics, scenes and vision that you have. Regrettably, this one is not among my favorites.
You indicate that that you focused on a branch of a tree on the island, but the entire island (and resulting reflection) looks "soft". The framing of the near foliage is sharp, but the thin vines hanging down interrupts, and competes with, what the central theme of your images is - the island and its reflection.
I truly apologize for the criticism. I know your photographic expertise is so much better. Posted: 05/01/2025 15:02:52
You indicate that that you focused on a branch of a tree on the island, but the entire island (and resulting reflection) looks "soft". The framing of the near foliage is sharp, but the thin vines hanging down interrupts, and competes with, what the central theme of your images is - the island and its reflection.
I truly apologize for the criticism. I know your photographic expertise is so much better. Posted: 05/01/2025 15:02:52
Thanks for helpful advice - I do not have experience with landscapes and feel encouraged to go back there since I like the concept - perhaps I will try some focus stacking. I did try multiple angles of view and settings and saved one that was editable with cloning and selective tone mapping.
Posted: 05/02/2025 15:40:26
Posted: 05/02/2025 15:40:26
WOW, that edited version is so significantly better that the original. To my eye, the diagonal "frame" created by the foreground foliage now adds a great deal and actually helps balance the entire image. The power of the current editing software is incredible. Well done.
I understand the assignment was "No editing". I feel badly for being so harsh with my initial comments, but I hope you took it in the light in which it was intended - which was intended to be constructive. I know you are capable of so much better composition.
Posted: 05/04/2025 15:21:27
I understand the assignment was "No editing". I feel badly for being so harsh with my initial comments, but I hope you took it in the light in which it was intended - which was intended to be constructive. I know you are capable of so much better composition.
Posted: 05/04/2025 15:21:27
Thanks for your comments. I walked by there again and decided against another attempt because of even more foliage as a result of all the rain we had. Posted: 05/04/2025 21:09:21
It's a great challenge to not have edits allowed. Guess that is why I do so poorly in wildlife photography. You got your reflection, and I'm assuming the challenge was not to have the perfect outcome--but a good reflection. You did well with that! Posted: 05/02/2025 21:29:04
Good point - I need to take a tripod, but difficult to set up since the trail is narrow and crowded. Going with a painterly effect could be another option. Posted: 05/03/2025 14:33:05
What a tough image to work with, Piers! As Shirley has said, you got your reflection, but in your original image, without your commentary, it's hard to know where to look. Your edit is more focused, but to me, it's to weighted on the right. I'd be tempted to crop everything out but the island and the reflection and maybe skew the image a bit to give a bottom left to top right look. Posted: 05/08/2025 11:29:54
Distorting is a new concept for me - so I tried the a central distortion to bring out the island followed by a horizontal skew. Then I found the top diagonal branch need to come out because of visual weight and the de-shadowing had gone beyond max. Then it needed a better sky.
I'm now thinking of asking the ranger to cut away some of the foliage along the trail to improve the view! Posted: 05/08/2025 16:16:36
I'm now thinking of asking the ranger to cut away some of the foliage along the trail to improve the view! Posted: 05/08/2025 16:16:36
Oh I like this much better! Good luck asking the ranger, lol. Posted: 05/08/2025 19:47:25