Lonesome Prairie Highway

[jtharvie]

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Now why can't all my photos turn out like this one? This is the highway from Winnipeg to Gimili (our Icelandic community on Lake Winnipeg and a vacation spot)

Tech: LC-1, Heliopan Polarizing filter, RAW, PSC2 slight levels, contrast adjustment and USM only.

Editorial comment: I LOVE 28mm view I find I use this the most of all focal lengths.

Cheers,

JTH

[stunsworth]

John, with everything being so flat I'd be tempted to emphasise the sky and get as much of that in the frame as possible to show a 'big sky'. I tried cropping out the lower third of the shot to put the emphasise on the emptyness of the scene,

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[hrosell]

John, I liked your pic, maybe because I am very fond of roads. Although I do not intend to change your viewpoint –after all, this is YOUR image– I would suggest you to try different compositions, specially because you have the elements to do so. For instance, what about a severe cropping to add dramatism? If you kind of approve this suggestion, then try flipping this "panoramic" horizontally, at least as an exercise (I only flipped two pictures in 45 years of shooting!).

Regards,

Horacio

[jtharvie]

Thanks Steve & Horacio,

I think you are spot on with the crop suggestion I will try one.

Horacio, I am not sure I understand flipping?

Thanks for the input

[vic vic]

john - very good photo - like the open space here.

but i wouldnt suggest to crop here - surely not in the lower botton part. the road there gives such a great sense of presense and belongness. this is mainly the power of lenses like 28. to get that close but with it open vision that creates illusion of presense

[stuny]

John -

 

The 28 seems made for The Great Plains. I wouldn't change a thing. The sky is dramatic, but the land is necessary to convey the hugeness of the plains, emphasied by the converging lines. For me, cropped as Horatio suggests lessens that feeling.

[elansprint72]

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One shot, yet so many photos! Crop out 2/3 of the sky- great image, do the same with the road: another great image, cut out the entire right half... superb again; or you could just leave it alone.

 

I wish that I had taken all these photos- well done.

 

Pete.

[jmr]

John,

 

a powerful and beautiful image. It reminds me of the Gus Van Sant film, My Own Private Idaho.

[jtharvie]

Thanks John R.

I have wanted to see that for some time . . . isn't that the one with Keanu & Rivers?

[hrosell]

Horacio, I am not sure I understand flipping?

 

John, "flipping" is like "mirroring". If you are on Photoshop, go to Image/Rotate canvas/flip horizontal canvas. If you use other imaging software, I believe that probably all of them have this possibility.

 

Otherwise, it is nice to see how any given image appeals differently to different people. I believe that in general composition is a matter of taste, personal taste. However I also think that there are some sort of rules to start with and which are very good to break afterwards. For instance what particularly bothers me (sorry it is difficult for me to pick up the right and/or polite words) is the lower portion of the road, the kind of square shape that it forms as you presented it. The sky indeed is dramatic and you can crop it or not, but if you want to prominently show the strength of the road, then I respectfully suggest you to go again to that spot with a stool or whatever using the same 28mm but just play with the idea of having at least the left border of the road starting at the corner of the image, shooting from a higher position. Then you could have lots of road and whatever a sky size you can fit in the picture.

I would personally avoid placing the horizon in the center because, again in my opinion and taste, it robs tension from an otherwise potentially very strong image.

 

Regards,

 

Horacio

[jmr]

Yes, John, that's the film. One of my favourites, well worth the price of the DVD from Amazon.

 

Here's a Wikipedia link to whet your appetite MOPI

[colorbox]

good shot.....endless the sky and the highway