A Night Stroll through the Garden
by paganini

Comment by Konador:
Nice long exposure, i like the effect it has on the fountain.

A Night Stroll through the Garden
by paganini

Comment by Pidd:
I could give comments like "too dark" or "the green line (a power pole?) on the right is distracting, but I can see what you were trying to do by making the fountain the focal point (that does look pretty cool). I'm afraid the photo just doesn't appeal to me. I would rather see more of the ground than having those lights "floating" in the darkness.

A Night Stroll through the Garden
by paganini

Comment by BLEE:
The fountain really makes this shot. Awesome. It'll be right up there i reckon. Like to know what settings you used. Good stuff.

Reflection of Longs Peak
by paganini

Comment by Journey:
Why does the G2 at F8 have more dof than 10D at f16? It's, however, your next sentence that i meant. Sometimes you want definition from foreground to far background for the shot to work and have the most impact. Actually, with mountains in the background, that's often the case.
It's this shot i was thinking of yesterday when i took those shots of the baby seal. Remember the other oops-shot from the other day of bay/Bellingham/Mt Baker? Actually, that was pretty much the background for the baby seal shots. I thought it would have been a spectacular shot of having that seal (but sharp :) on the rock in the bay and be able to see the city and the mountains clearly in the distance. Trust me, i tried. Even if i had been able to come closer to the seal, there would have been too much blur for the shot to work.
Similarly, yesterday, i took some shots, mainly unposed, of a Native American girl standing in the water (will put them in my portfolio tomorrow or so). I tried to put her in the context of the beautiful landscape. Well, it's somewhat akin to you saying to 'find an interesting foreground for the beautiful landscape behind'. But i think i ended up with some unsatisfactory hybrids that are neither sharp portrait nor landscape. So, some of those shots i ended up cropping just to end up with half decent 'portraits' but that's not what i was after. I just think i made the wrong decision and should have gone for the girl and forget about the landscape behind her.

Silky Water
by paganini

Comment by Journey:
lol. It's limitations such as these that make nature photography so very hard and i truly appreciate nature photographs that are perfection. They don't come about easily. What i can conclude then is that this shot was untakenable (unless one has a death wish) in-camera. Since the image is really fine, i would have no qualms to save it by doing some darkroom editing. All the detail seem to be in it so it shouldn't be hard. You need that left rock to frame the fall but, at least to me, the darkness of the rock overpowers.

Have you seen this? //www.wacom.com/tips/tip.cfm?ID=62&STEP=1&category=Photoshop

That is a handy non-destructive way to d&b. Besides, i have gotten lots of good PS tips from that site, forgot to visit it recently so i missed the above handy tip until someone posted it this afternoon.

Silky Water
by paganini

Comment by paganini:
Haven't tried dodging, but my ideal spot would be just below where i am standing, where i am about 3-4 feet from a 20 ft DROP :) I was too chicken to move closer to eliminate the left rock elements.

Originally posted by Journey: The problem i have with this image is the dark rock on the left. It's so dark compared to the water that it reads like a hole (even on the thumbnail) and its sharp edge doesn't help either. It just doesn't belong with the tonality of the rest of the image The waterfall is excellent (good exposure!!) and is reminiscent of Chinese paintings. The part on the right is good too. If you would dodge the dark rock, this would be an excellent nature shot.

Reflection of Longs Peak
by paganini

Comment by paganini:
Actually, believe it or not Journey, the Canon G2 at F8 will have more DOF than 10D at F16 :) Seriously. However, diffraction doesn't occur for 10D until past F16, while diffraction for G2 is probably around F6.5, so you get more blurring effect due to that.

This photo can only be taken midday such as this during a cloudy day. Otherwise, things will start to get blown out of highlights. I could make the photograph darker but it will make the photograph darker, i sacrificed the log for a bit more contrast later on. The viewer however will probably focus on the logs, as it has diagonal elements AND horizontal elements.

A general rule for landscape photography is that you find an interesting FOREGROUND element for the beautiful landscape BEHIND it :) basically the generic rule. It can be rocks, flowers, fences, whatever. This image would not be interesting if i had just shot the reflection and the mountain, i think.

yeah, wish I had gotten up early enough and clear day for alpine glow........ cloudy day will have to do for now.

Originally posted by Journey: Notice that, ggg, the D10 goes to F16! Sure makes for a lot of difference in the depth of an image as you can clearly see here. In western WA, even outside the mountains, you often have the same weather conditions: overcast or cloudy and yet bright (this combination drives me nuts). That probably accounts why that one branch/log near the notice is blown out somewhat (would burn it a little). This is indeed a very impressive photograph. Yet, i have some trouble relating to it (have seen it a few times now) and don't quite know why that is. Perhaps because it consists mainly of cold colors? My eye likes to linger on the logs most in the foreground and they happen to have the most warm tones. ???

Lotus Series
by paganini

Comment by paganini:
Yeah i noticed the brown spot :) sucks..... i think i need to shoot hte entire pond one day to show you guys how small this really is.

Lotus Series
by paganini

Comment by Journey:
I liked the other image but i like this one even much better. Whereas the other one is all tranquility, this one is vibrant with life. Love the unfolding of the flower, and the position of the top leaf. What makes it spectacular is that you can see the leaves below and the stems reaching down into the water. Knowing your feelings about nature, you'll probably bemoan the brown spots on the left leaf. It's okay really : this image is such a pleasure to look at.

Opening
by paganini

Comment by paganini:
Thank you Helene and Julia -- the shot was done with a 70-200mm F4 L lens @ 200? (or around there). As far as the exposure, it was easy -- it's a cloudy day, diffused light and shot around 6 pm or later, in fact, I need to use a tripod as the light was dim enough even at ISO 400! I tend not to dodge or burn, as it tends to introduce noises especially from the shadow areas. I think i just used -1/3 or -2/3 exposure and evaluative metering to hold back the exposure, and some slight adjustment in photoshop. Two of the petal is a bit soft, but I think that's either DOF issue because I shot at F8 or because of motion of the flower petals. I have another shot i'll post tonight.