I hope you don't mind, but I tried cropping a few of your images to change the composition.
No, not at all. I really appreciate your feedback.
While you images are sharp and well exposed, they seem to lack any true focal point. The first time I quickly scrolled through the images, I didn't even realize there were skaters and only looked for them after reading your text.
03 cropped
For the shot above, I would suggest shooting from a lower angle so the distant horizon wasn't cutting through the bushes.
If you see the Ice hanging in the bushes you might get an idea why it wasn't possible to get a low enough point of view to hide the horizon. At the lowest part of the dyke there was a small slide.
Also, I would suggest focusing closer so that all of the foreground ice was in focus. Everything beyond the bush is superfluous and can be out of focus
It's all about the decision what subject and what's environment. I agree with you if you want to emphasize the foreground, this part should be in focus.
But I did crop off the horizon to get more emphasis on the fence and the ice behind it, using a fence far in the background (and the reflection of that fence) as a kind of frame.
Maybe I should make a black and white version, because the ice in the foreground is a bit yellowish.
14 cropped
For me, the ice in front of the gate is far more interesting than the ice behind the gate. The plastic bag on the fence post also wasn't helping.
22 straightened and cropped
It looks like something might be casting a shadow over the lower parts of the icicles which is reducing contrast.
I agree with you. This was the last sunlight of the day. I should have been here a bit earlier.
The top halves of the icicles have a nice "pop", but they lose appeal as your eye naturally drifts towards the bottom ends. Shifting the lens focus just a bit further away might have helped too.
Yes, I regret I didn't try that at least. Most of the light was in the foreground so I decided to focus there, but the composition calls for a focus backwards.
In general, I tend to prefer tighter crops in my compositions so my personal preferences are probably not the same as your own.
I like your feedback. It's always a good thing to be aware of more preferences but your own.
Maybe for tighter framing a telephoto zoom is a better tool, especially because I really didn't want to walk on the ice. Only want to do that when I have 2 friends with me and a rope, an M100 + 24mm f/2.8 stm in stead of M6mkII + 32mm, and some serious seat heating in my car.
Beside that, it's also my style not to make a very clear choice between environment and subject sometimes. Ideally there's a kind of balance or harmony between subject and environment, or, at least, that's what I'm trying, but of course not everyone sees things the way I do. Maybe this is where photography gets really interesting.
Maybe next time I should bring a telephoto and a wide angle and see what happens. That would make it easier to make a clear choice what is the subject (telephoto) and it will force me to think harder about if the foreground or the background is my subject.
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I love 50mm (equivalence)
