One degree Chicago sunrise. Wow it was cold.
Author: Harold Pollack
Harold Pollack is Helen Ross Professor of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. He has served on three expert committees of the National Academies of Science. His recent research appears in such journals as Addiction, Journal of the American Medical Association, and American Journal of Public Health. He writes regularly on HIV prevention, crime and drug policy, health reform, and disability policy for American Prospect, tnr.com, and other news outlets. His essay, "Lessons from an Emergency Room Nightmare" was selected for the collection The Best American Medical Writing, 2009. He recently participated, with zero critical acclaim, in the University of Chicago's annual Latke-Hamentaschen debate. View all posts by Harold Pollack
Nice. You are to be commended for suffering for your art.
#4 is excellent. It's worth noting the difference between that and #2, where the roadway or wall in the foreground is a little distracting.
I tried cropping a copy of #2 to leave out the road, leaving the aspect ratio unchanged. Do you think it is an improvement? I like the posts, their verticality balances the horizontal emphasis of the horizon, the dike and the clouds.
Interesting. I see #2 and #4 as pictures of two very different things, or rather, as two very different pictures. The vertical posts in the lower third of #2 draw the eye up to the parallel structure at the end of the peninsula and the sun almost behind the clouds. The roadway in #2 locates the viewer within the picture. I find all that very pleasing. #4 strikes me as more a study in variations on two interacting colors, which, on my monitor, look like blue-gray and coral. There's a structure at the end of a peninsula, and there are patterns in the ice. It's beautiful, but I find myself wanting something to frame the scene, or perhaps a cropping that would focus more on the ice pattern halfway up the picture. But that's just me: de gustibus, as they say. I appreciate your comment; it made me look more closely at those two pictures and see just what I really liked about #2.
ETA: I just saw Mr. Wimberley's cropping of #2 to eliminate the roadway but keep the wall. I do like that better, since it simplifies what's in the lower portion of the frame and lets the posts and the wall do their work.
I do like James' crop. I tried one myself and did almost exactly the same thing, except I left the whole sky in so that on the left the wall ended just a touch above the bottom of the frame.
I take your point about locating the viewer, but think I prefer the more abstract look of #4.