taken on the way home from the action challenge photo shoot :) couldn't resist the beautiful sky and my sister just bought this new dress and looked cute!
i think my editing probably sucks big time but i liked the overall idea of the shot
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i gave this a 6 during challenge.. i would have liked it better if she was facing away from the viewer and looking at the sky/tree... i think the problem is that there's too much to look at in the photo. but a nice effort indeed.
friends of mine keep bugging me to get to california.. one day.
I really like the idea and colors in this, yet I can see some details which might negatively affect the typical DPC voter.
Composition: IMO this might've worked better if you had stood a step or two to your right, so that the entire tree would be included -- unless there's objectionable stuff over there. Right now it seems a bit too unbalanced to strongly convey "serenity" or quietude.
You must be dealing with some funny hillside angles, but some compromise to at least partially compensate for effect of the obvious receding horizon line might help with people who deduct points for things like that.
Tech/Processing: The slow shutter speed has caused a ghosting at the back of the dress. It looks OK over the grass, where it's dark enough to appear like a double-exposure or just an extra fold of fabric, but the almost transparent triangular part overlapping the sunset looks odd -- I'd have tried to dodge that to match the rest of the skyline.
I thought there might be some haloing around the tree from oversharpening, but on second look I think that's about as good as it gets -- there's a surprising amount of sharp detail in the silhouetted twigs.
I gave this a 5 in the challenge. It got a 5 because it is a nice shot but didn't fit what I was looking for in "zen'. it is a bit busy. The tree without the model and a slightly different angle to use the path as a leading line to the tree would have done it. I also think with the model there I want to see more detail of her. She is netiher in fully in silhouete or in detail.
The Zen challenge was difficult because everybody probably came in with a different idea of what Zen was. Personally, I was looking for a minimalist picture. In that regard, this canvas is too full. I think I may have had the same idea as a lot of other people as at least 8 of the Top 10 shots involve negative space or at least wide swaths of similar texture (the B&W field shot). You do capture a feeling of serenity quite nicely.
The sky is well captured. Nice colors, nice texture with the clouds. That's the best part of the shot. The sillouettes are nice too, but there is quite a bit of halo around the tree. If that's from burn/dodge, then it's your bad. If it's from a high-radius USM, you didn't go high enough. ;)
I'm not too crazy about the model's pose. To me it looks like she wants to walk somewhere, but yet she's standing. In other words, I can't quite tell what she's supposed to be doing.
Wonderfully moody shot. The processing makes it look like something out of Like Water for Chocolate - very magical realism-ish. The Zen of it is the dialogue between the woman and the tree.
This should have finished higher, don't know the area, (from Ausralia) but just a thought, if you had stood on the other side of the road still keeping the sky as your element, and looked towards it, using the road as a leading line into the shot and the tree, on the right of the image, rather than the town lights,IMO this would have been a good Zen,
The processing is good, as one can see what you were after in the image.
You have a good photographic eye.
Certainly has a reflective feel to it, I'm not sure it shouts Zen to me but I do like the composition, placement of the tree is nice and the sky colours are good too :o) 8
Although I sense some solitude in this shot, there is just too much going on here for me to be drawn into any type of serenity and peace. The multiple subject matter - the girl, the tree, just has too much interest that my mind is not calm when looking at this. It demands too much attention.
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