"Across The Pond", behind my mother's house

[jordanm]

This was taken in my mother's backyard in Cooperstown, NY. I was using my polarizing lens, but burned the sky in just a wee bit in Photoshop. Comments? Critiques?

[Teewinot]

jordanm....I love it! When a photographer gets good clouds in a shot I am always pleased. In this case, your clouds are awesome! Your overall composition is nice....good pond placement with slight reflection. I also think the lighting is solid and the colors are vivid.

The only thing I wonder is what the shot would look like with a landscape horizontal crop...did you take more that are similar or is this the only one? Just wondering if losing some of the foreground would be beneficial, not to mention if getting the photo in landscape orientation would better accent the clouds since they are already horizontal. Do you see what I mean? In any case, this photo as is really is great and I only make these suggestions as 'alternatives' rather than 'improvements.' Thanks for sharing!

[clockdoc]

Very nice pond shot. I concur with Teewinot's comment on the cropping. What type of polarizer are you using (circular or linear). The effectiveness of a polarizer is dependent on the angle and position of the sun. With scenery as nice as this you should try a panoramic shot and stitch the panels together using something like Autostitch. Try running this through Picasa2 in the monochrome filter effects of using a RED filter. The clouds should really 'pop' against a dark sky. Again, very excellent work!

[jordanm]

Hey guys,

I do have a landscape-oriented shot, but unfortunaly it doesn't include the pond! I can still post it if you'd like?

As for the filter, it's made by "Quantaray"? It doesn't specify if it's circular or linear. I got it for $27 when the Ritz Camera here was closing.

Thanks for the comments!

[Nicole]

Just a quick note, polarizers do not work well with panoramas because as you move across the scene (as it were), it changes the angle that the sun is hitting the filter at, so you can wind up with a strangely polarized sky where the colours don't match up very well. Uh, yeah, it's from experience

But, I've got to say that this is a nice shot. I love the colours and the reflection. I like that it's in portrait orientation too, it makes it kinda more dramatic I think.

[matthewchj]

1 word: Lovely!!!

[jordanm]

Thank you Nicole and Matt! :]

[tufcat]

Great shot, I might have tried cropping some of the top of the photo, even though some of the cloud detail would be lost. That being said, my first impression was "beautiful picture", so the photo works just the way you displayed it. Nice job.

[pamroth]

I love it, Jordan. I like the portrait orientation for the shot. The sharply focused green plants/weeds in the foreground really make you feel like you're "in the scene", just standing there taking in all of nature's wonder before you. The colors are excellent. Good job!

[mikem12188]

Jordanm,

Cooperstown is a great little town with lots of great opportunities for shots like this. Keep up the good work.