New Joiners - Landscapes #571

The power of three. I often talk about it in relation to photography and this is a nice demonstration of the rule/trope. Even though the dead trunk is disrupting the line of trees, it is different enough to not disrupt the overall satisfaction. The dead trunk has enough ambiguity to pull the eye into the composition, and I wondered first off if it was a person. The hi-key processing here works really well, with the monochrome distilling the image back down to it's basic elements, contrasting the foggy background with the trees and foreground. One of those images that demands a second look and worthy of a top 10 position.

Although this isn't a traditional landscape image, there was something about it that really spoke to me. I think it's the simplicity of the composition and how the washed out colours of the decking and the blue tones of the sea/sky contrasts with the red of the chairs. I love how one chair is leaning on the other, symbolic of how we all need somebody to lean on in the face of the vastness of this life. I think the composition would benefit from an adjustment to the horizon to make it straight and possibly a square (1:1) crop to focus all the attention on the chairs. Still, much to enjoy about this image.

There's a nice atmosphere to this image that is enhanced by the moody skies above, threatening a change in the weather. The colour green dominates this image, from the bright green/yellow grass of the foreground to the darker greens of the trees behind. Thankfully the blue in the sky offsets all the green to a certain extent. I'd be included to crop out the bright bit of sky in the top left as it's distracting from the rest of the image.

This image is all about how the elements in the frame compliment each other and work together to create something a little more interesting that just the average sunset. The main heart of the image is the line of geese traversing the sky, mirroring the cloud that they're flying parallel to. That line is also mirrored in the foreground which balances out nicely. The whole scene is aided by the warm glow of the dying sun adding a little bit of drama and magic.

It's hard to resist an image that includes poppies, even more so when it's been thoughtfully composed to maximise the different elements of the composition and use the poppies as far of leading the eye into the other elements. I like that you've composed with the tree in the middle of the image as it acts as an anchor point to the rest of the composition. The moody sky and it's cool tones contrasts well with the warm colours of the poppies below. Nicely seen and captured.

This is my kind of landscape. Shot at sunrise, on a frosty morning with some low-laying mist floating across the fields. I never tire of scenes like this, probably because they happen so infrequently! I like that you've captured the sunstar as the sun just peaks it's head above the hills. There's still some autumn colours in the trees which adds some marvellous variation in tonality. The warm and cool tones work well in opposition to each other and overall the composition works nicely. A joy to look at and behold.

I wanted to include this image in the commended selection because there's plenty going on in the scene that I really like. This low cloud that's hugging the mountains and the light that's filtering through combined with the snow on the ground. However, the crop is very strange and the foreground is distracting. Perhaps you didn't have enough of the scene to create a normal crop, but I feel like even a square crop focusing on the tree and the mountains would have more of an impact that the current crop. Composition aside, I image this was quite the scene to behold.

I don't often find much to like about images taken from airplanes, mostly because the windows there are shot through can be dirty and distracting. However, there was something about this one that caught my eye, especially the tonality, with the blue hue covering the whole scene. I like the composition and the way the landscape moves from sea to "terra firma" through a series of rivers and estuaries that look like veins traversing the heart of the landscape. It's a fascinating image that makes me want to look closer.

This image demonstrates tenacity and dedication to your craft. Astrophotography is difficult and it takes time and skill to get results. This is testament to all your hard work focus stacking and meticulously putting together this absolutely glorious nightscape. The composition works well, with the river in the foreground leading into the mountains behind, with galaxies and stars exploding from the mountain as if it's a volcano on a grand scale. Nicely done.

I really love this image, especially the contrast between the thriving tree and the dead trunk. The two are co-existing yet completely different. It contains some powerful symbolism regarding the duality of life and death, literally and metaphorically. I like the way you've composed it, tight in the frame so that is the central point of interest. I'm also a fan of the bright, bold colours, both in the tree itself and in the blue sky behind. This is certainly an image that tells a story.

I absolutely love this image and how you've composed it. It feels like it could be the trailer poster for some upcoming Sci-Fi movie, with the tower climbing out above all the rest of the buildings. This is helped by the dusty, hazy atmosphere that adds to the mystery and romanticism of the scene. Composing with the structure in the middle of the image works really well, ensuring that wherever the eye wanders, it's inevitably pulled back into the heart of the scene.

This image has lots of atmosphere despite it's simple subject matter. I like the corn that's taking up the foreground, illuminated by the sun behind. It's always a danger shooting directly into the sun because it can easily overpower the highlights, but there's enough atmosphere in the sky to hold back the brightness. This is an image that would benefit from a more thoughtful crop. The negative space in the sky and below the corn adds nothing to the image so removing it would make the overall composition more impactful.

This is classic landscape that works using the different elements of the composition together to create a compelling morning image. I like the contrast between the rough rock of the tor and the grass beneath, illuminated and turned red by the rising sun. This is complimented well by the pink clouds in the sky. Classically Dartmoor. Nice work.