This was a overcast day -- the sky was full of clouds, though they were white and the day was fairly bright. I'm not sure how I could have gotten away from the bleached-out sky and the slightly dark foreground. Is it simply a matter of choosing where you want to focus the details, and then setting your exposure?
?Poorly composed? ...well, that depends on what you were going for. As an abstract, it does have some distracting parts ? the branch from the other tree bleeding in on the left...but, as an abstract, the curving movements of the fronds contrast nicely with the straight lines of the trunks. The bleached out background is cool, in my opinion, it makes the abstractness more clear ? in this case, the dark trees need the whiteness of the sky to stay contrast-y. It would be better balanced to the eye if there was a black/dark frame around the photo, to differentiate and define the edges from the white of the page in which it?s placed ? I think that?s something to keep in mind as viewers look at it. Um, perhaps it does seem kind of ?flat? in a way most of your work isn?t ? there?s not any depth of field, just the black/white contrast ? and so there?s not as much mystery or meaning outside the formal composition of the photo, compared to some of your other photos.
I don?t know a damn thing about the techniques of photography, but I think if you want to shoot at the sky you have to use a filter of some sort to either bring out the colors of the sky, or bring into the foreground the texture, shape, and colors of the subject (i.e., the trees). For example, ?escape? has a wonderful range of colors, textures, lines, depth of field, range of dark to light....and all these formal compositional elements make it more than just an image, it gives it some mystery and meaning beyond eye candy. (By eye candy I mean something that?s visually appealing, without necessarily any other mental/philosophical/emotional meaning).
I think that there is just too much grey in the photo, and thus it has a rather dull look. I think that the subject matter could have been more interesting had there been more color, and maybe a little more exposure could have brought that out. I know that it a long distance and all, but maybe a really powerful flash could have illuminated the leaves and given them more color.
I've tried to adjust the levels some. What do you think?
Composer: tighter framing? other concerns? I'm not disagreeing with your judgment; I'm just wondering what led you to say this so that I can learn from it.
Exposure: this was what I was asking about. +1 stop so that the trees are exposed, I'm assuming. then I end up with a bleached out (well, even more bleached out) sky.
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