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The Secret Garden
The Secret Garden
pmichaud


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Classic Novels (Advanced Editing VII)
Collection: Miscellaneous Landscapes
Camera: Canon EOS-5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS
Location: It's a secret.... :)
Date: Oct 14, 2013
Aperture: f/4
ISO: 320
Shutter: 1/40
Date Uploaded: Oct 15, 2013
[Oct. 17th, 2013 03:56:11 PM]

The darkness and the "overprocessing" of the flowers and the grass are deliberate in this image. If you recall, The Secret Garden begins with tragedy. The little girl lost her parents in an epidemic. She is angry. The distant relative she comes to live with has lost his wife and his son is an invalid. He is angry and despondent as well. The garden is not thriving, but it IS magic. It will respond to caring hands, but it has been walled off, closed up until someone finds it. My life the past year has been similar. I have experienced great loss as well as critical illness. I am dealing with facing another loss of an important member of my family in the very near future and I am powerless to prevent it. My garden has withered. The brightness in the image is the magic shouting out for attention. If it is disturbing to you, so be it. There must be beauty enough in your life that you don't need the reminder. Good for you.

Thank you for all the nice comments. I really appreciate that more folks than I realized got what I was trying to do. This path really did look this way if viewed through tears...

Statistics
Place: 67 out of 86
Avg (all users): 5.2150
Avg (commenters): 5.7368
Avg (participants): 5.3488
Avg (non-participants): 5.1250
Views since voting: 279
Views during voting: 216
Votes: 107
Comments: 19
Favorites: 0

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AuthorThread
 Comments Made During the Challenge
10/22/2013 11:17:15 PM
This does have the sense of a discovered, secret garden, the passage through a green tunnel into light. Beyond that, it's not doing a whole lot for me, I don't feel especially engaged.

5 from me.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/22/2013 10:37:49 PM
sweet. love the glories. 5
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/22/2013 09:52:42 PM
I like the vibrant colors! I haven't read the book, but you do evoke a children's book with these colors. You also have a good, energetic composition, with swooping darkness on the right, and a strong sense of "passage" to a better place. 7
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/22/2013 11:26:01 AM
Nicely setup to evoke a sense of leaving the darkness for golden fields
a 7 from me
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/21/2013 10:51:46 PM
Very nice. Great details in the shadows and I love the tunnel to the inner garden.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/21/2013 07:50:18 PM
6...this hints at the story quite nicely. the greens down the path appear to be overexposed and have turned into this blobby looking mass with little to no texture or information. It's a difficult exposure to say the least.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/21/2013 02:38:01 PM
I enjoy the over saturation of color 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/20/2013 08:15:55 PM
The heavily saturated image provides an interesting guidance through to a different world. I doubt this will appeal to many but I rather like this. 7
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/19/2013 11:10:58 PM
Some may not like the exaggerated processing, but I think it fits the secret.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/19/2013 04:05:35 PM
The image is too contrasty and oversaturated, but there is some of the mood as if we were looking out from a secret place to the outside light. 5
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/19/2013 11:22:59 AM
Fits the title, looks secret. I would have tired a soft focus (a layer of blur ). The highlights are a bit blown on the rock and that is a bit distracting. So i find the green at the end of the path. I would also have tried to get rid of the leaves on the top left.

Is the view from the garden or towards? 6
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/19/2013 09:48:58 AM
Definitely looks like a path to the secret garden. I like the point of view from the dark pathway looking in to the sunny exit. The harshly lit stone in the middle is a tiny distraction. 6
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/19/2013 01:50:56 AM
Yes. It evokes the novel.

Why are those greens SCREAMING NEON GREEN?

Otherwise, this image is fairly good - but the way saturated blues and greens hurt the image.

6
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/17/2013 08:11:00 PM
I particularly do not like the image myself. The colors seem over processed and there are weird tendril looking shapes all in the photo. The image is too dark and could have used better lighting or a longer exposure. The idea is good, but the execution is lacking.

gave it a 2
 10/17/2013 10:33:55 AM
I think this could have been a more interesting shot had the processing been different.
Not feeling it.
Gave it a 3
 10/16/2013 11:17:13 PM
Murky and lurky scene. Creates the right atmosphere but the scene at the end of the tunnel is a little bit of a let down. To your credit, the right leaf wall is wonderful to explore and the blueish path is good. 5.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/16/2013 10:17:14 PM
Good composition with the nice pathway leading to the secret garden! A little heavy handed with the processing though, as the green in the center of the frame seems over-saturated and blown out with no detail?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/16/2013 07:10:52 PM
Your picture is acidic and processed to the rim. The wonderful morning glories in the foreground got killed by the saturation and the green became fluorescent. too bad because the place seems quite beautiful
5
 10/16/2013 12:26:39 PM
A little like a book illustration, and nice lead in.7.
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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