Not too bad for window shots

limr · Nov 29, 2017

I got some color scans back recently and have been slowly going through them. These were taken back in May while driving down local highways between Durango and Ouray. Or was it to Grand Junction? Can't remember. At any rate, it was the western half of Colorado.

Still playing with crops on this first one. Can't tell if I like the bit of motion blur at the bottom or not.

rHorse by limrodrigues, on Flickr

This one looked straight when I was working on it, but now it seems a bit off. Can't tell if it needs straightened or if that's just the effect of the rise of mountains on the left being slightly shorter than the rise on the right.

rHomestead by limrodrigues, on Flickr

vintagesnaps · Nov 29, 2017

I rather like that little bit of blur to that sagebrush (or whatever it is).

What I've done shooting sports to figure out if I'm framing straight (especially along a curved end of a hockey rink) is to see if posts or poles or any straight vertical lines are parallel to the sides of the frame. There's a little teeeny post there... actually looking on Flickr there's one off to the right too - it all looks straight to me.

Why do you suppose those poles are there, out in the middle of nowhere? And why do I think about things like that? That's rhetorical, I don't expect an answer.

Really nice pictures, by the way...

limr · Nov 29, 2017

vintagesnaps said:
I rather like that little bit of blur to that sagebrush (or whatever it is).

What I've done shooting sports to figure out if I'm framing straight (especially along a curved end of a hockey rink) is to see if posts or poles or any straight vertical lines are parallel to the sides of the frame. There's a little teeeny post there... actually looking on Flickr there's one off to the right too - it all looks straight to me.

Why do you suppose those poles are there, out in the middle of nowhere? And why do I think about things like that? That's rhetorical, I don't expect an answer.

Really nice pictures, by the way...

Thanks! Yeah, those little posts look straight so it must just be an optical illusion. Maybe those are telephone/power line poles but we just can't see the wires? I dunno, what the hell do I know about the West? I'm hopelessly East Coast

SquarePeg · Nov 29, 2017

Really like both of these! The first one you've got a ton of detail all the way through to the mountains in the back and the composition is very balanced. I think I would crop out the blur and take a little off the top too - make it a more traditional landscape and bring the horse and the mountains in a bit closer. Love the vastness that the second one shows. Can't believe you took either of these through a car window while moving! Wow.

Derrel · Nov 29, 2017

I LIKE motion blurred foregrounds on shots made from moving vehicles. I know whatcha; mean about the second shot appearing not level, but the telephone poles in the distance look mostly level. Just today I made a photo with some irregular height mountain peaks in the distance, and their differing heights caused the foreground to appear not level! Doggone it! Why can't the world be perfectly regular, like Lego bricks?!

Designer · Nov 30, 2017

limr said:
This one looked straight when I was working on it, but now it seems a bit off. Can't tell if it needs straightened or if that's just the effect of the rise of mountains on the left being slightly shorter than the rise on the right.

The tops of the mesas will not look horizontal because you are below the tops and there is some lens distortion. The one on the left is very much lower than the one on the right, so no need to try to make them the same height. Don't use power poles for a vertical guideline, because they are sometimes not vertical. Use the walls of the buildings instead.

My pick is #2 because it illustrates the scene perfectly. I often wonder: Who lives there, and are they sane?