August Image Mountain and Boats

This image was taken in Glacier National Park in Montana with a Nikon D70 . I was attempting to achieve a moody feeling and used Photoshop CS3 to convert the color image to black and white and used Hue/Saturation to bring out some of the clouds.

COMMENTS:
 

Jerry Appel	An interesting but somewhat busy scenic. I’m not sure that the boats help the cause and the relatively light rock on the lower left does compete with the mountain for attention. (A little burning in?) That said, there is a certain beauty in the scene which I find myself liking better the longer I look at it.
Bill Buchanan	Karen, this scene is very restful and your idea of converting to black and white was a good choice. The placement of the horizon line in the center is a bit disturbing. I would prefer a lower camera angle and move the horizon line down and emphasize the clouds. I hope you shot this in camera raw so you could really make the sky jump out at you. I think with a mask you could work on the sky and create a very dramatic image.
Joe Hearst	It is a good scene but I would prefer it without the boats. I love the way you got the fog into it, though.
Guy Davies	There is clearly some very dramatic scenery there and some that works well in mono. There is a double symmetry in this image, vertical and horizontal, with the mountain and its reflection being dead centre. This means that the mountain and reflection need to be the dominant focal point for the viewer’s eye. It is unfortunate, therefore, that the sky is so bright, particularly in the top left, as this draws the eye away from the mountain. If you have some suitable clouds in another image, maybe you could try replacing the sky with them, but don’t forget the reflection. That apart, the foreground rocks add interest and the diagonal line of the beach nicely breaks the otherwise perfect symmetry of the composition. Maybe if you were to increase the contrast of the foreground rocks it would greatly increase the foreground interest and offset the effect of the bright sky.
Erik Rosengren	Very nice foreground and reflection Karen. I find the boat dock an intrusion into an otherwise serine image. Could you have moved to eliminate or found a better angle for the dock.
Rafal Kowalkowski	The part of the sky is overexposured? nice reflection, the stones on the first scene should be removed a bit.

Member Bio

Karen Kotner- Biography I grew up and currently live in St. Louis, Mo. Our family spent four years in Boston where my husband was a resident at the Massachusetts General Hospital. I have a grown son and daughter and four grandchildren. I spent the last six years before retiring commuting to New York where I worked for MetLife in charge of all benefit programs for active and retired employees and was a member of the Metlife Merger and Acquisition team. Upon retiring in 2006, I began to pursue an interest in photography taking classes and becoming active in the St. Louis Camera Club. Although I loved the darkroom, I decided to focus on digital. Two years ago I won a membership to PSA. I became Photojournalism Interclub chair for the 2008-2009 club year and also won my first bronze medal in the most recent 75th Anniversary Exhibition. We have always loved to travel and I use travel as an opportunity to capture interesting people and beautiful places. I have (successfully) entered a number of PSA approved exhibitions to receive feedback on my images and look forward to this study group as a way to be exposed to expert photography as well as receive constructive feedback on my images.