Maine forest

[Schnauzer]

These aren't my fish and I don't know anything about landscapes so don't expect much

Where I live is in the beginning of a triangle of land with a river on one side and the main road to New Brunswick, Canada on the other side. Its 90 miles to the Canadian border without a single paved road crossing the triangle. Maine is the most heavily forested of the lower 48 states and this is all logging/ forestry country. We went riding some of the logging roads today taking pictures of some of the outlets of the lakes that literally dot the area. We had a great time. I had forgotten that we used to do this all the time.

We saw a few moose, but the camera was in the back of the vehicle so the dogs wouldn't scar it all up. By the time I got the camera the moose were in the woods out of sight.

It had been raining, but stopped and brightened up a little.

5DMII
Yashica ML 28/2.8 at f/5.6





To bad reducing for the web make the huge pictures from the 5DMII look bad. The more you crop the better they look. This is just a small crop and it looks better to me than the full size. Some how they always look over sharpened when reduced even though they are not.


An eagle nest way out there in an old tree.

[Laurence]

Simply magnificent landscapes. A part of Maine that I had not envisioned. Almost a cross between wetlands and the Serengeti Plains. These are well-taken, and the composition is beautiful in a hard-to-compose area. Love these, Ron.

[Schnauzer]

Thank you very much Larry. I really appreciate it.

[poilu]

very nice landscape
great composition and colors, they could be painting
my fav #2#4#5

[patrickh]

Ron

These are superb - you are well on the way to becoming a mainstream landscape taker


patrickh

[LucisPictor]

Isn't is amazing that in the States the Northwest and the Northeast have the most amazing landscapes?

[Orio]

Very good landscape, the cloudy weather gives a sense of melancholy which I think is VERY appropriate for the swamps, plus you got the benefit of the clouds reflections (which you wouldn't have in a sunny day!)

Thumbs up!!

[Schnauzer]

Wow!! You guys actually liked them. Thanks a lot. I wish I had the eye for landscapes that a lot of you do.

Now, for my own information/learning process about landscapes. These wouldn't be interesting, would they? And if you don't mind taking the time, why?

[Orio]

Ron, I will give you my opinion.

A landscape is not much different from other types of pictures, in that it also needs a point of interest.
In your last pictures, it is difficult to define what the point of interest is. The vegetation makes a rather undifferentiated mass. There is the water, but it also flows without particular interest points. It may be the rocks at the bottom of the first picture, but they are not so prominent. It could be the fallen trunk in the second picture, but it is quite distant and small and the deep DOF does not make it stand out.

In your previous pictures, those of the swamps, the water was the main subject, but it worked well for two reasons:

1- your point of view was lower, near to the water level. One thing I learned in photography is that the photograph comes out stronger when the main subject is at the same (or near) level than your camera's eye level. In your river pictures, the water is seen from above and this reduces the importance.

2- in the water of the swamp, there was some well focused vegetation, and mostly, there were the reflections of the clouds, which made a gorgeous effect.

hope this helps

[Schnauzer]

Thanks Orio. That does help

The streams were very interesting, nice sounds of the water moving and I thought pretty. But after taking the pictures they did nothing for me. That is why I didn't post them.

In the other pictures I was able to get down close to the water to give a better perspective. In the stream shots I had to take them off of a bridge.

I will learn this. I need to develop my eyes for this sort of thing as well as keeping some key points in mind.

[Katastrofo]

Very nice, Ron, in the first set, the Maine Everglades (where's the airboats, anyway) I like the last two. In the second set I like the 2nd
one, the vertical comp really works in this. Let's have more of these.

Nice frames, BTW.

[Schnauzer]

Thank you Bill.

[patrickh]

Ron
Going along with Orio, I would add that light is also critical. Adams would wait up to two weeks to get the light right, and he aimed to have the key portion of his shot "highlighted". We don't normally have the luxury of waiting so a certain amount of successful landscapes is serendipity. I suspect #2 would have been even more successful with some diffused sunlight


patrickh

[Attila]

Simple beautiful! Go to there again with Velvia and medium format camera

[Schnauzer]

[Schnauzer]

[Laurence]

I agree about Orio's premise that "points of interest" are of importance. Even if you feel, Ron, that the last group is not as interesting, I STILL love them because I am "into" seeing what the land looks like in different places in the world. I also agree with staying low with the camera (when possible).

Our weather has been the opposite of yours - we have a drought situation in comparison with most years. We have set two records for number of days without rain, since February. Not good...

I would certainly love to see you continue with your "tour" with images.

[Attila]