Dam in Sherbrooke

[benoitc23]

Hi!

I took this picture last year while on a business trip in Sherbrooke, Canada. After a day of work, I went walking along the shore of the river with my camera. It's really the colors that drew me to the scene, since the subject itself is really ordinary I think.
I took my time to get everything right, taking many exposures at different settings. It's my first landscape ever with a tripod. I used a polarizer to get more contrast and a darker sky. There are some blown highlights on the ciment underneath the trees, but I deliberately chose this version since the water had less ripples, being that the shutter was open longer.

Personaly i'm proud of this shot, but everyone to who I shown it went like "ok... next..". Maybe I like it more because i'm remembering the mood I was in when I took it, I don't know...
Your c&c on it would be really appreciated!

[tirediron]

Personaly i'm proud of this shot, but everyone to who I shown it went like "ok... next..". Maybe I like it more because i'm remembering the mood I was in when I took it, I don't know...
Your c&c on it would be really appreciated!

Had that feeling more times than I can remember!

The two main comments I have about this image are that it's slightly over-exposed and appears over-saturated (That is the colours seem artificially bright). Other than that, it's a good image technically, but for someone who wasn't there, it doesn't have a lot to grab the viewer's attention.

I find the combination elements rather too much. You have a nice old brick building, nicely coloured trees, and then the fences, wires, and the rest of the detritus of modern life.

I think what would have worked better is if you had been able to capture the brick building with a few of the brightly coloured trees, but much less of the "junk", that is the wires, fences, etc. Difficult to be sure, just putting forward a though.

~John

[benoitc23]

You're right about the composition, I should had focused more on the red building and try to leave out as much clutter as possible.
About the saturation.. I wanted the colors to pop since I felt it was the strongest element of the picture, maybe I exagerated it!

Thanks for your comments!