Total newbie shoots "ghostly" Death Valley in B&W

AlbertoDeRoma · Dec 4, 2009

I just spent 3 days in Death Valley and took quite a few pictures. Below are a handful of my favorites (in B&W.)

Feedback and recommendations are welcome as I am a beginner.

Thanks,

Alberto

Ghostmobile

Ghost Train

Ghost Bicyclist

Ghost House

Ravens Kissing

brianT · Dec 4, 2009

I really like the first one: Ghostmobile. You should just level the horizon. It would be interesting to see more of the Ghost Train.

indeedies · Dec 4, 2009

I agree with brian about the first one. Also with a title like ghost bicyclist I was hoping to see more of the bike. Putting it in a portait orientation rather than landscape may have helped this. Although I'm a cyclist so I may be biased :lol:

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Overall I really like them especially the first.

AlbertoDeRoma · Dec 5, 2009

brianT said:
I really like the first one: Ghostmobile. You should just level the horizon. It would be interesting to see more of the Ghost Train.

Thanks for the feedback Brian. That's exactly what I was looking for (i.e. I hadn't even noticed that the horizon was not leveled.)

Alberto

AlbertoDeRoma · Dec 5, 2009

indeedies said:
I agree with brian about the first one. Also with a title like ghost bicyclist I was hoping to see more of the bike. Putting it in a portait orientation rather than landscape may have helped this. Although I'm a cyclist so I may be biased .
Overall I really like them especially the first.

Thanks. Very good point about the cropping on the bicycle and using a portrait orientation.

Alberto

AfroKen · Dec 5, 2009

I like the suggestions above, and just wanted to add that I also really like "Ghost House"!

AlbertoDeRoma · Dec 5, 2009

AfroKen said:
I like the suggestions above, and just wanted to add that I also really like "Ghost House"!

Thank you. I know that putting the house in the middle of the frame was not very creative on my part, but other compositions did not work and - in this case - centering the subject seemed like the right thing. What I found interesting in this picture was the contrast and detail of the wood boards.

Alberto

TJ K · Dec 5, 2009

The Ghost Bicycle one is pretty good. I like it because of the creep factor and how it's like old school and everything looks deserted. How did it stay in form like that. Nice
TJ

RancerDS · Dec 5, 2009

Yeah, Ghost House is my favourite out of all. Could have used a touch more sky, maybe. If you would have been able to get a closer shot of Ravens Kissing without scaring them off, that would have made a pretty awesome photo... but still very good as-is.

AlbertoDeRoma · Dec 6, 2009

RancerDS said:
Yeah, Ghost House is my favourite out of all. Could have used a touch more sky, maybe. If you would have been able to get a closer shot of Ravens Kissing without scaring them off, that would have made a pretty awesome photo... but still very good as-is.

Thank you for the feedback. I agree with you on the House needing a bit more sky. It would have been easier to think of at the time if there were some interesting clouds, but the sky was pretty much monochromatic blue - albeit a wonderful blue.

As far as the ravens kissing go, I tried to move closer, but they flew away. It was one of several instances where I did miss having a zoom - but on this trip I forced myself to stick to just the D-Lux 4 to see how far I could go with it. It has become pretty obvious to me that it's great for some shots (e.g. landscape, street scenes, portraits, etc.) but I also need a zoom to catch some shots where my feet can't get me close enough to the subject.

Thanks again for the feedback.

Alberto