Photo story of the week: Point of Transition

I like your different take on it...

Aug 7, 2017permalink

Kulvinder

Thank you. My other photos of the place are too similar to the thousands that have already been taken ;)

Aug 8, 2017permalink

biza43

To me, it's a good photo, that summarizes the elements in the location, and the relationship between them. I have photographed in the Empty Quarter of Oman, and these type of moments are really fleeting ones.

Jul 31, 2017permalink

The closing scene of the recent teaser video for the D850 was shot here. They obviously arranged permission because the park is closed to visitors at night time and this location some 60km from the gate.

Jul 31, 2017permalink

Fujica

This place is nothing special - Tons of tourists are brought here by the day. If you book a trip to Namibia you will see this place. No doubt.

It is noticed in every tourist guide by approximately the same photo as well. I see nothing special here, just another photo of the same tree that is photographed to death.

Jul 31, 2017*permalink

No need to be so negative. It is difficult to get there at sunrise due to gate opening times and distance from the gate and distance from the nearest parking to the Dead Vlei which requires a good 30min of walking through dunes to get there.
This picture shows lighting most will never see. There are many other interesting views that seldom make it to the tourist brochures.
It's a spectacular location notwithstanding the fact that it is easily accessible to tourists.

Jul 31, 2017permalink

Its not difficult if you are staying inside the gates at the lodge or the camp site;

Which, lets face it, if you went to photograph the place, you would make the effort of being inside the gates: a cursory glance shows that many many people do get there early.

Or you can go in March, when the sunrise is after 7am.

I would disagree with Fujica though - it is a very special place. Tons of tourists make it to the Grand Canyon, or Ayers Rock, or the Matterhorn, but they are special too. Seeing something so familiar from photographs (that have been photographed to death) does not always prepare you for seeing it in reality.

I took scores of pictures of the Grand Canyon, from the same view point as millions of people; and they are more special than the photographs near hometown that hardly anybody will see.

Jul 31, 2017*permalink

Fujica

I actually do not disagree with the fact that this place has some 'magic'to it.

However seeing the same image over and over again, does not make this image any special anymore.

Jul 31, 2017permalink

I've seen some beautiful pictures of this place.

The featured photo here is not one of them. It's decent enough, no better or worse than I could do; but photo of the week? Nah. There's nothing special to it: all that is required is to turn up at dawn and shoot. Take 20-30 shots (a roll of film in the old days), choose the best. We've all done it. Essentially that is all it is for the vast majority of landscape photos.

(The pretentious title and description is toe-curling. Its a tree in a desert.)

Jul 31, 2017*permalink

@Badscience...last time I was there the campsite was just outside the gates and the guard doggedly stuck to the 6am opening time with the result everyone was speeding in the park to get the 60km and the walk-in done before sunrise. This was in mid April.

Maybe the situation has changed.....hope so! Beautiful area with much photographic potential....it's much more than just one dried out pan in the dunes.

Jul 31, 2017permalink

http://www.nwrnamibia.com/sesriem.htm

Jul 31, 2017permalink

Clint Dunn

I totally agree...it's the same with Iceland...the same couple of waterfalls photographed a million times using identical compositions.

Jul 31, 2017permalink

Or Scotland! If I see another photo of Buachaille Etive Mor with a little stream in the foreground winning a photo competition...you can literally turn up and plonk your tripod in the same three divots as everybody else

Aug 1, 2017permalink

IsaacRFR

Is it the same tree?
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Dead_Vlei_5.jpg/1280px-Dead_Vlei_5.jpg

Jul 31, 2017permalink

its a "unique" tree

Jul 31, 2017permalink

CameraLabTester

It's like a Salvador Dali surreal painting.

Nice.

Jul 31, 2017permalink

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1374289/0

No it's not!

Jul 31, 2017permalink

APenza

The two contrasting bands at the bottom leading to a shadow that wraps around a lone tree softly lit with its branches echoing the subtle ripples of the nearby dunes touching the solid blue sky. I like it. It has a less is more beauty.

Jul 31, 2017*permalink

tko

This photo just plain off. The dark tree should have been in the light, not the darkness. This would spotlight its strangeness and balance the dark shadow. As it stands, the photo is "heavy" to one side.

The tree tips shouldn't break the horizon. The apparent tilt s/have been corrected. The sweep of the sand dune isn't particular artistic or flowing.

Photography should elevate the subjects. This photo does not inspire me, more of a snapshot. The fact that he waited for this only makes it sadder.

All personal opinion, of course, I'm sure he has other photos that are great.

Jul 30, 2017permalink

sh10453

It's a worn-out path that has been photographed to death.
I like these images by Boris Buschardt a lot better:

Jul 30, 2017permalink

There's (as always) a lot of people saying "If you don't like the article, don't read it!"

Trying to get my head around that concept...

Jul 30, 2017permalink

mcshan

Great point Mike. The "don't like, don't read" crowd is hard to believe. Often with this "logic" they like to throw in "..show us your photos of (fill in the blank..examples: iceberg breaking away, Mount St . Helens erupting, Hawaii lava flow, Namibian Camel Thorn tree".. etc). Apparently you must take photos of the same subject in order to have an opinion. It is quite a weird concept.

Jul 30, 2017*permalink

I wondered how you can like or not like an article without reading it.

Just wondering.

Jul 30, 2017permalink

PhotoRotterdam

DPReview showcases a lot of images of the same photographer. If there's some kind of special relationship, that's fine, but please inform us. There are numerous professionals out there which are not featured. It is a bit random this way.

Jul 30, 2017permalink

It should be random.

Who knows, you might be the random lucky one!

Jul 30, 2017permalink

Simon Zeev

There are many photographers but maybe they are not so good like this one.

Jul 31, 2017permalink

(unknown member)

Instead of debating if he is a pro (clearly is) why not debate if this photo is any different from the thousands of same trees and sand ? Am always worried that I'm shooting from the view point of something I saw and not what I'm actually seeing.
So would really like to see more of a debate on how to avoid the Postcard effect on your work.

Jul 30, 2017permalink

Clint Dunn

Well the hardest thing to do in photography is to have your own 'eye' for subject and composition. This is why thousands of photographers flock to the same 100 locations around the globe and take identical photos.

It's a difficult thing...when you visit some of these iconic locations you want to capture your own memories but these spots have been photographed to the point that almost everything is a cliche.

Aug 1, 2017permalink

Could those people who all know better what a professional photographer is, please go somewhere else for their discussion?

Don't like the article? Don't read it.

Really don't like the article, read it anyway and feel the need to express yourself? Kindly do it by showing that you can do better.

Simple, isn't it?

At least this article is about photography.

Jul 30, 2017permalink

or, "if you don't agree with me, shut up"

I think you are missing the raison d'être of a comments section!

Jul 30, 2017permalink

Maybe the comment section could be used for criticizing the content? And not the messenger.

Like what you like about the image, what you don't like about the image? The image mind, not the photographer...

Instead we get all this vomitous bile about Ezra not being a professional photographer etc - going straight for the messenger...

Jul 30, 2017*permalink

or maybe the comments section could be for....comments...

you might take your own advice, "Kindly do it by showing that you can do better." by producing a comments forum that runs to exactly the rules you want? Plenty of people have done so.

There are plenty of comments here about the photo, which you have not addressed, nor have YOU critiqued the photo using your criteria...strange.

Jul 30, 2017*permalink

Ah, so let me see if I get this right...

I mustn't express my opinion about what people post?

But it's perfectly ok for you to tell me to be quiet and go away?

Please give me another reason why I should take you serious

Jul 30, 2017permalink

nah, you miss the point -

which is to take your own advice

happy to have cleared that up

Jul 30, 2017permalink

No, I don't miss the point, troll.

The point being that you think personal attacks, be it on Ezra or on me, are part of a good contribution to a discussion.

Jul 30, 2017permalink

where did I mention or imply what warrants a "good contribution"?

Only you have stated what is worthy. And stated that people who make comments you don't like should go somewhere else. But of course, you are free to make comments others don't like.

You're not the brightest bulb in the box are you?

Do keep up.

Jul 30, 2017*permalink

Do keep up with your personal attacks?

No, sorry - you have me far outpaced on that track. And, frankly, I am quite happy about that.

Jul 30, 2017permalink

I'm glad you are happy. You seemed so sad and agitated for a bit there.

As far as I can recall, I never attacked your person; maybe you can point out where that was?

Jul 30, 2017permalink

Hard of memory? Ok, let me help you with a couple of quotes.
"You're not the brightest bulb in the box are you?"
"I can see from your gallery that you might be impressed by these photos."

And now you can climb back under your rock, sad little troll.

Jul 30, 2017permalink

"You're not the brightest bulb in the box are you?"

I'll give you that one, even if it was after your bleating about being personally attacked. But you must insist on showing just how exceedingly dim you are (and thin skinned).

"I can see from your gallery that you might be impressed by these photos."

Well, that's not a personal *attack* by any measure is it? Your photos ARE demonstrably worse than anything Erez has posted. So somebody producing superior work to you is by defintion, going to be impressive. Do you disagree with that?

Jul 30, 2017*permalink

And another personal attack "how exceedingly dim you are"

I was right about you. You just can't do without. Crawl back under your rock.

Jul 30, 2017permalink

If you think that's an "attack" you're as fragile as glass.

Jul 30, 2017*permalink

brockmo

Going there early November, and was looking through the Flickr pages for Namibia just to get a sense of the landscape and what lenses were used for wildlife, etc.
I agree with several of the comments below: while a very nice photo, nothing really spectacular to distinguish it from many dozens of equal or better artistic merit.

It's one of those instances where the landscape subject itself is more awe inspiring than the actual photograph.

Jul 30, 2017*permalink

(unknown member)

Had similar comment. Was wondering how others avoid the Postcard effect on their work.

Jul 30, 2017permalink

PWPhotography

Namibia is the country I plan to visit in my next Africa trip, a country with both landscape and wildlife.

Great photo and leverage excellent DR from A7r well.

Jul 30, 2017permalink

Not professional photography. Type in "Deadvlei" in Google pictures and there are about 2 million pictures of dead Acacia just like the one in the article.

Cool trees for sure. But everyone and their mom has shot them. Many images are better than the one in the article which is boring.

The videos of this place are also far more exciting to watch, since it gives you a sense of size, which pictures don't do. There are things that lend themselves to photography and things that lend themselves to video, pick your battles better.

Jul 29, 2017*permalink

Bing Chow

How is Mr. Marom not a professional? Photography is his full time job, and he leads numerous photo tours. Yes, he is here to make a name for himself, to drum up traffic to his own site, and there is nothing wrong with that. In return, he shares his fantastic images and the process behind them with us.
Also, I don't care if "everyone and their mom has shot them." I haven't. Instead of trolling DPR, why not get off the keyboard and go where no man has ventured before and share with us your originality and skills.

Jul 29, 2017permalink

Doing something full time or getting money for something doesn't make you a professional. I fix and upgrade motorbikes pretty much full time during the holiday and I get paid some pocket money for it, but I don't call myself a professional mechanic, I'm not. Calling myself a professional mechanic would do a disservice to people who spent years going to school learning and studying their craft.

Professional means a certain level of accreditation, degree, experience and level of employment, and I don't think he has that, so I don't think he is a professional.

Now, someone working full-time for Reuters risking their lives to bring us world events, those people are professionals, I think it's a shame that the term "professional photographer" is thrown around like that, if anything it discredits actual professionals.

Jul 30, 2017*permalink

RamD

You, sir, are an idiot.

Jul 30, 2017permalink

Yossarian1

@bambi24 - hmm, speaking of professionalism, your comments fall well short.

Not "everyone and his mom" has shot them and while there are many images available on the net, this photo is high quality. For me, the morning light on the branches and the shade line provides a point of difference from other images. You get the sense that the photographer waited for this shot.

This environment is well suited to stills hence the number of images on the net. Video has its place but sometimes cannot capture the mood as well as stills.

Jul 30, 2017*permalink

dialstatic

"Doing something full time or getting money for something doesn't make you a professional."

That is *precisely* what makes one a professional. Do people forget that 'profession' simply means 'job'?

Jul 30, 2017permalink

"Do people forget that 'profession' simply means 'job'?"

That would make it a synonym of the word job. I don't think most people would say profession or professional has the same meaning as job. Like I said, I repair motorbikes as my side-job in the summer months. It's a job, I get paid, yet I would never call myself a professional mechanic, neither is it my profession.

There is clearly a type of status attached to the word "professional" which isn't present in the word "job". They're not synonyms.

Jul 30, 2017*permalink

"That is *precisely* what makes one a professional."

Then the chap being paid a bit of pocket money on the side is a 'professional'.

I think the problem here is a narrowness of definition. And it doesn't fit the etymology of the word either.

If we argue by strict definitions, then arguably photography itself isn't a genuine profession.

Jul 30, 2017*permalink

"If we argue by strict definitions, then arguably photography itself isn't a genuine profession."

Photography happens to be in an odd spot. You have lots of people without official accreditation in photography calling themselves professional.

This works in the fields dominated by crafts, like sculpture, traditional fine arts, in fields that are purely skill based like languages, translators, etc. Things like sports. These people end up being called professional based on the skill they have, which can be judged by certain metrics.

You can't do this with photography because what makes a great photograph is completely subjective. So photographers just end up assigning these labels onto themselves at random.

Jul 30, 2017*permalink

dialstatic

Well, the dictionary disagrees: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/professional

As an adjective, professional simply means "following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain". If you do photography for a living, then you're a professional photographer. You could still be a *bad* professional photographer, of course.

Jul 30, 2017permalink

bambi - whilst I broadly agree with your criticism you must know you are plain wrong about what a professional is.

If somebody pays you to do something, you are doing it professionally. That's the end of it.

You are, of course, free to redefine the English language as you see fit for your personal use. But expect people to be baffled.

Jul 30, 2017*permalink

Dictionaries aren't infallible magesteriums. Rather they tend to try to reflect popular/current understandings. It's chicken and egg. On top of which you can have multiple definitions for one word, especially from bigger dictionaries, which are easily abused by cherry pickers. So forget the dictionary definition. You need etymologies and encyclopedias for this.

A genuine profession has a whole structure and methods of accreditation and are vocational in some respect. We don't talk of professional lawyers because it's not a profession, whereas being a doctor is. The word 'professional' originates from the professions.

That's why I said that it's arguable that there's no such thing as a professional photographer. But I'm not saying that's true, just that it's arguable.

To put it another way: this is a pointless argument and won't be going anywhere.

Jul 31, 2017*permalink

"If somebody pays you to do something, you are doing it professionally. That's the end of it."

You may be doing it 'professionally' but are you a professional? Arguably not if it's just a side-job for which you have no accreditation.

No 'end of' about it. You're oversimplifying.

Jul 31, 2017permalink

"You may be doing it 'professionally' but are you a professional? "

jesus wept

Jul 31, 2017*permalink

"jesus wept"

Sure, because you're insisting on your doctrine that being paid makes it professional 'end of'. Which is arguably an oversimplification 'end of'. And which doesn't address the question of whether the photographer in this piece is a professional or not end of.

Personally, I think you need to end of.

Jul 31, 2017permalink

you are rather sensitive

Jul 31, 2017permalink

You're probably quite young.

Jul 31, 2017permalink

I'll take that as a compliment!

Are you quite old?

When does curmudgeonliness set in?

Jul 31, 2017*permalink

After you grow up.

Jul 31, 2017permalink

well, let's hope that isn;t for a *very* long time; otherwise I'll start writing stuff like, "Dictionaries aren't infallible magesteriums." You must be a hoot down the darby and joan club.

Jul 31, 2017*permalink

Can’t imagine it’s the same location as this photo:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2011/06/frans-lanting-behind-the-photo/

Jul 29, 2017permalink

KodaChrome25

Thanks for that link!

Jul 30, 2017permalink

Just a snap. I wouldn’t call it a “Photo of the week”

Creating some kind of story around a photo doesn’t make it special in my opinion. Try harder next time, Erez.

Jul 29, 2017permalink

Stephen McDonald

A good story with a photo can make it special and I try to write one for every shot I take.

Jul 29, 2017permalink

@Stephen McDonald
I don't mind a good story. However, the photo itself should be the focal subject(no pun intended)

Jul 29, 2017permalink

D200_4me

It's a beautiful scene for sure, but seen far too often by other photographers...so it sort of loses the impact.

Jul 29, 2017permalink

(unknown member)

You have to hurry if you want to repeat this shot. Nowdays there a lot of idiotic tourists who will climb on these trees with selfie-sticks. In a few years only branches will lie around in Deadvlei...

Jul 29, 2017permalink

Moon0326

Um..Erez Marom again.

The title really should be "Erez Maron's weekly photo and paid Ad"

Seriously, it's been only Erez Maron's photo for the last few weeks.

Jul 29, 2017permalink

JonBush

If a good photographer wants to share their images and the stories behind those images for free, as Erez has done many times here, are you better or worse off for having spent a few minutes reading their posts (remembering the free part)?

Jul 29, 2017*permalink

Yeah, what’s with that? DPR employees don’t take photos worth sharing?

Jul 29, 2017permalink

batmatty

I really like Erez's photos and am always happy to see him featured here! His work is wonderful.

Jul 29, 2017permalink

KodaChrome25

When I clicked on the tag link for Photo of the Week, five weeks came up. I had already noticed previously that there seemed to be a lot of landscape PotWs to the exclusion of portraits, street photos, etc. Then I noticed all five weeks were the same photographer. Odd.

Jul 30, 2017permalink

rude

I like it

Jul 29, 2017permalink

ZeBebito

Beautiful place for photography. Has been done almost as often as the chinese fishermen in Guilin.

Jul 29, 2017*permalink

Dee Fitch

Some good firewood there.

Jul 29, 2017permalink

Hugo808

If I'd taken that I would have moved so the shadow in the background didn't interfere with the tree so much. I'm sure he'll nip back and redo it now.

Jul 29, 2017permalink

daddyo

The rim lit tree against the background shadow is exactly what makes this a unique photo in a spot that's been photographed to death.
In portraiture, one of the first things you learn about photographing a side lit profile is to position the subject against a dark background to add impact -- good wedding photographers use the technique all the time. The same principle can be applied to nature photography.
Had this photographer shot the tree against the bright background, it would look like a clone of 1,000 other images.

Jul 29, 2017permalink

Hugo808

Maybe the others got it right?

Jul 30, 2017permalink

stevevelvia50

There is absolutely nothing unique or clever about the handling of subtle rim lighting in this situation, and I'm not sure why we're are presented with it.

Aug 1, 2017*permalink

Fine art.

Jul 29, 2017permalink

Really?

Jul 29, 2017permalink

I hope that's sarcasm.

Jul 29, 2017permalink