Woodland Cottage

[Fred Berg]

View attachment 23707
iso 1oo
1/30
f5
16.6mm (28mm)

 

[Fred Berg]

View attachment 23710

This is the same photo but without the vignette and the intensity of the sepia wash has also been reduced. I'm not sure which I prefer, each has something that I find appealing, and would like to hear any opinions you may have regarding them.

 

[KenC]

The second for sure. Both of the things you changed were bothersome to me when I looked at the first. I would also crop that piece of sky in the middle and the small shed on the left (leave the tree trunk just to the right of it).

 

[amolitor]

Is this a charming woodland scene, or New Topographics banality? I find this in a stylistic no-mans land, neither charming enough to be charming, nor banal enough to be social commentary. The setting is also foreign to me, which probably does not help -- perhaps if I was more familiar with this style of thing I would find it powerful commentary?

This fails to speak to me at all.

As a composition it's ok. The cottage is not badly placed, and is balanced by the dark area to the left of it, in the forest. The foreground is weak, which makes the image feel top-heavy to me.

 

[Mully]

Adding some smoke from the chimney would really help this charming cabin. Just MHO

 

[Fred Berg]

The second for sure. Both of the things you changed were bothersome to me when I looked at the first. I would also crop that piece of sky in the middle and the small shed on the left (leave the tree trunk just to the right of it).

View attachment 23777

Thanks, Ken. How does this look?

 

[Fred Berg]

Is this a charming woodland scene, or New Topographics banality? I find this in a stylistic no-mans land, neither charming enough to be charming, nor banal enough to be social commentary. The setting is also foreign to me, which probably does not help -- perhaps if I was more familiar with this style of thing I would find it powerful commentary?

This fails to speak to me at all.

As a composition it's ok. The cottage is not badly placed, and is balanced by the dark area to the left of it, in the forest. The foreground is weak, which makes the image feel top-heavy to me.

Thanks for the input, Amolitor. I've lived here for the better part of a decade and this cabin/cottage struck me as being quite untypical somehow without my being able to put my finger on why. I printed a colour version to put in my door gallery (I have a plastic holder that you drape over the back of a door and insert postcards, or in my case 10x15 photos, into) and when my wife saw it she remarked that it didn't look real - more like a witch's house from a fairy tale or a building from a model railway. Perhaps that is what drew me to it.

 

[Fred Berg]

Adding some smoke from the chimney would really help this charming cabin. Just MHO

Thanks, Mully. Perhaps in the coming weeks I'll get lucky on that.

 

[KenC]

The second for sure. Both of the things you changed were bothersome to me when I looked at the first. I would also crop that piece of sky in the middle and the small shed on the left (leave the tree trunk just to the right of it).

View attachment 23777

Thanks, Ken. How does this look?

Yep, works for me.

 

[manaheim]

Is this a charming woodland scene, or New Topographics banality? I find this in a stylistic no-mans land, neither charming enough to be charming, nor banal enough to be social commentary. The setting is also foreign to me, which probably does not help -- perhaps if I was more familiar with this style of thing I would find it powerful commentary?

This fails to speak to me at all.

As a composition it's ok. The cottage is not badly placed, and is balanced by the dark area to the left of it, in the forest. The foreground is weak, which makes the image feel top-heavy to me.

Ugh. I agree with him. Again.

Fred, I think if this is someplace special to you then it's a great shot. (treatments aside) If not, there's not a lot there, though it is well composed.

 

[Rick58]

Hey Fred, I like the structure a lot. I'm afraid it doesn't lend much to a photo, but I'm glad you shared it. You're right. I doesn't look like a RR watchmens shanty