Frost River, a photo from Colorado, West

Photographer's Note

Frost River ...

This is in color .. black and white courtesy of Mother Nature .. a frosty morning in a winter fog .. I just did a touch of leveling and contrast ..

Ever post up a picture of a place. Thinking that was "the" picture of that place .. at least for that season .. and then come back to the place .. and discover .. maybe you were wrong .. and then feel compelled to post another picture of the same place ... to me a very different thought with frost and fog ... even in the same season ..

This is the Big Thompson River .. that I often follow up in the mountains .. here it is as it flows across the plains ....

From my last image ...

Andrew and I were headed out of town for a hike.
As we were were departing the world was immersed in this intense late morning fog .. the trees with this beautiful frost .. I got distracted .. managed to find a way to end up on the gravel roads down by the Big Thompson river .. let us say we arrived at the trail head a bit later than I had planned ...

Every year it takes longer and longer to get to out of town and the places to get are fewer and fewer as the "Front Range" cities on the plains North of Denver are growing together into a giant urban mass.

gunbud, lilimih33, stiginthedump, Bjostad, berek, evanrizo, Nicou, adores, zeca, jaja1970, snunney, branley, faganrodney, MP-Moller, ls7902, Donald, vesalius, NellyD, aznegrao, claire526, bruce_wayne, Guluzar, lcarolan has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

gunbud (34066) 2007-02-06 20:17

Hi John,

Black and white works very well to convey the harhness of this landscape. Beautiful river disappears and then reappears in its lazy meanderings. The snow clinging to the trees against the grey sky frames this one very well.
Regards, Tom

lilimih33 (9918) 2007-02-06 20:24

Hello John!
Another wonderful winter scene! Nice perspective and lovely colours, sharpness! Very beautiful place!
Excellent done!
Lili

Claudine (0) 2007-02-06 20:31

Hello John,
I like this POV and composition. Exposure is great too! It looks like a B&W picture... POV and DOF are very good as well. This is very nice. Thanks,
Claudine

stiginthedump (1833) 2007-02-06 20:48

Hey, well done for keeping this in colour John.
I know it's hard to tell the difference between black and white, but there's something about the dark tones of the water and the greys of the shrubs that I really like. I can't help wondering though if it would have been better to have included more of the sky. Maybe it would have added more interesting tones to this photo.

Thanks

AROBN54 (11475) 2007-02-06 21:03

Oh, this is beautiful, John. I love winter scenes and this one is top notch. I especially like the POV with the curve in the river leading the eye. The contrast is excellent and the sharpening is just perfect. GREAT shot!! Good wishes, Shelly

Bjostad (306) 2007-02-06 22:39

John,
Beyond all the great reasons to love this picture (natural black and white, winding stream), I like how three of the trees have a different texture than the softness of most of them: large tree, bottom right, and left bank trees all have more defined iced/snowy branches.
Agree with your last paragraph about sprawl, we see it far too often and in many parts of the world....
Dave

MIG13 (0) 2007-02-06 23:18

What a beautiful (and cooold) landscape, John! Mother Nature has done it nice, for sure! TFS! Greetings from warm Rio! Miguel.

leo61 (0) 2007-02-07 0:50

Hi John!
Good shot of this frozen landscape with nice B&W tones made by nature.Excellent POV,great depth and good contrast.
REgards,Leo

berek (50518) 2007-02-07 2:07

Hi John,
its hard work because of white colours. you managed it very well. you caught very good perspective with river. have a nice day from Istanbul .
Burak
****

evanrizo (462) 2007-02-07 3:53

Ooooh I forgot how look these snowy landscapes, the effect is wonderful.
I like the point of view, especialy the effect from trees.
Thanks John very much.
I will come back.

UnTrained (0) 2007-02-07 4:42

Hi John,
too cold for me - your capture has around -20 degrees (not Fahrenheit - Celsius). Excellent cold one with a wonderful composition made by the curve of the river and the trees.
I go to get a coat.
Lieben Gruss, Ulf

adores (46979) 2007-02-07 18:59

Hi John!
I remember the other one but this is also really great. I really like the way you captured this small river just beween the small trees covered with snow. Great POV and all this white is fantastic!
Regards, Anabela

jaja1970 (1304) 2007-02-08 5:51

Hi John,

Excellent Job.
Fantastic composition and pov.

Congratulations,

Javad.

snunney (130967) 2007-02-08 8:14

Hello John,
Excellent winter landscape with good perspective provided by the meandering river and the trees on the river bank. Very good b&w tones despite being a colour photograph ;-) Perfect contrast and clarity. All in all lovely winter scene.

branley (3681) 2007-02-08 11:30

Hi John,

this is a very cold looking shot and I'm already in my winter woolies! It's a beautiful composition, well suited to B&W, very crisp and very clear. I love the way the river, with its gentle curves, runs down beside the frosty trees. It's a fine image, well done and I like your note too.

Regards

Stephen

Emiel_Skyfreak (3002) 2007-02-08 12:19

Hi John, beautiful winter landscape.
This little (big?) river frosted is nice to see, good POV, letting the river create depth in the photo by it's curves..Good winterlandscape. The contrast is nice, good black, proper white.
I would have added it as Black & White photo if I we're you :-)
Greetings.

zeca (19762) 2007-02-08 21:58

Hello John!
Beautiful scenery! The curves of this river are nice cutting the whites. Its also nice to see the details in that first big tree! Nice capture!
Regards from the sunny and hot Brazil!
Zeca

Enidlareg (2317) 2007-02-09 2:46

Hello John !
Brrr!!!
your photo refrigerates us!
It is superb and the ice on the trees is very aesthetic.
Very good framing with this small river which involves our eye towards the horizon of your photo.
Bye
Geraldine

rossofuoco (7398) 2007-02-09 3:38

Hi Jhon.
Bellissima foto ben eseguita e ben composta.
Complimenti
Renzo

bigboroboy (1098) 2007-02-09 8:04

As with the vast majority of images in your gallery, this is superb. The lead created by the river is sublime and the composition is excellent. The big tree domineering over the smaller ones works really well.
GREAT.

PHIL

faganrodney (489) 2007-02-09 8:31

Before I read your comment, I thought you had the Medium wrong. As you say Mother Nature has done a great job to give this effect. Your POV was perfect to capture how the trees hug the banks of the COLD unfrozen meandering stream. TFS Rodney

fserajian (2299) 2007-02-09 14:56

Hi John,
Lovely winter shot, well presented. Love the snow on the trees and the stream gives it that extra interest which draws your eyes in to the background. Nice work and TFS

Regards,

Fara

MP-Moller (592) 2007-02-09 16:20

Hi John, I love it!
Even better than your previous frost photo. The river and tree line ads depth and the big tree is almost worth a picture of itself.
As always I want to crop... a small part at the top would place the tree better in the compo and then the photo also would fit my laptop nicely as a screensaver :-)

Its always interesting to see the same place in different seasons and different conditions.
Take care
Mattias

carod (364) 2007-02-09 18:17

Hello John,

Magnifique photo, j'aime beaucoup la rivi鋨e qui fait son chemin � travers les arbres.

Belle ambiance !!

Par contre j'aurais peut-皻re cadr� avec moin de ciel afin de mettre l'emphase sur la rivi鋨e.

bye !
Caroline

ls7902 (7380) 2007-02-10 9:50

Very beautiful snowy landscape. I like the way the river wind away away to the back. The shape & dark colored water of the river provides a fantastic contrast to the snow & complement the bare branches of the trees. This is my favorite of your recent post. Regards. Latiff

anesugur (18789) 2007-02-10 17:11

Hi John,
Superb composition.
Very beautiful picture with the perfect quality.
Well done. Best wishes. Uğur

Angshu (56760) 2007-02-11 23:00

Hello John
The colours or rather the lack of it makes this look like B&W, though it's not. The dark tone of the stream & the greyish tones of the shrubs and the tree is visually appealing. Even the sky is frosty white. I like the compo. John. Well done!
Regards
Angshu

Donald (136) 2007-02-12 4:56

Hi John, this realy caught my eye because the whole photo jumped out at me, but the trees are the most stunning part of the whole photo as the are so sharp for want of a better word.
A1 top stuff my friend.
Kindest regards
Donald

DarkoG (8) 2007-02-12 5:05

Really nice capture. Fine b/w in color photo. Nice gradation of gray. Nice work

scientific (405) 2007-02-13 14:41

Hi,
very nice winter scenery. Colors, perspective and composition are beautiful. Well done! Thanks for sharing..
h悤ya

vbbreizh (2622) 2007-02-15 13:09

Hi John
Well composed, gorgeous result, very nice !
Regards, Gilles

mesutilgim (0) 2007-02-19 14:41

Hi John,
Great black&white capture . A "Leckerbissen" germans would say.
Wonderfull..
TFS
MESUT ILGIM

vesalius (861) 2007-02-22 22:50

Hello John, this is absolutely beautiful. It almost feels like an infrared shot with the incredible detail of frost-lined trees. The river forms a nice focus point with good use of an S-curve away from the viewer.

Thanks for sharing,

Don

NellyD (1874) 2007-02-23 8:58

Hi John,

This is a very beautiful winter scenery!
Great perspective, sharpness, POV and composition.
Thanks for sharing.

Greetings, Nel

aznegrao (10316) 2007-02-25 15:31

Hi John!!
Parece B$W, mas e a cores n�, pois isso mostra o equilibrio na composi誽o agrad嫛el mesmo com ausencia de cores.

Thanks.
aznegrao.

claire526 (1267) 2007-02-26 11:01

Wow John, this is naturally black and white ;) You have a very interesting vantage point here. You have captured the soul of winter. Yet another sight to behold from you.
All the best,
Claire

bruce_wayne (1507) 2007-03-01 5:13

Hi John!
In this shot the time seems that it stopped...a wonderful winter composition. The picture is not dull, white trees, river and snow complete this composition...it's very well done!

Bruce W.

rigoletto (34279) 2007-03-06 5:11

This one is really really lovely John!
Such a joyful beauty you share with us! Wonderful use of exposure and light, and sharpness is perfect. Your amazing POV makes this an artwork of wintershots. Thanks for your choice of not turning it into B&W. Colors are obviously admirable. And the river...It adds a lot. TFS,
Deniz

tjanze (5674) 2007-03-08 3:27

Hi John!
I like the way of river left and right.Great show white color of snow.Amazing light on this hard conditions.
Well done.
Regards!

Guluzar (379) 2007-03-09 17:40

Hellow John,
What a wonderful winter scene and the perfect mix of black and white.
well done!
*love it*

sadeik (3282) 2007-04-12 12:36

And then I saw this one, brilliant and into my treescapes theme, a superb winter scene.

Simon

robsz (741) 2007-04-19 10:15

Hi John,

Beautiful composition. I love the contrast of the dark stream against the snow and those soft tones in the shrubs. I think this would look nice against a thick white border.

Etike (211) 2007-05-26 17:03 [Comment]

Show Comment

jaywalker (16105) 2007-07-06 12:54

Hi John, I was looking for a snow scene & I knew you would not let me down, this is stunning & wonderfully composed, although mediums colour, it's A B/W beauty, the river is perfect & the frosted trees excellent, kind regards Wilson.

rminkow (1556) 2007-08-07 17:30

Hi John...I like this one..the contrast between the dark water and the snow and sky works very well...beautifully composed.

Roger

brevbrev14 (140) 2007-08-27 12:08

Hi John, this view is amazing...and the composition good to show well the place...
there is a particular atmosphere with the snow...
well done!
ciao!
Valeria

lcarolan (930) 2007-12-10 11:57

John,
Nice capture! I normally don't appreciate black & white, but it really works here, probably because that is it's natural color. It is well composed with the bend in the river leading back into a diagonal composition.

I have been thinking of trying some similar river shots, so I looked through yours. Your mention of the day you forgot your tripod and wound up taking a lot of low POV shots resting your camera on the dock reminded me of that technique. I frequently find the wind and shutter move my camera on a tripod. A little bean bag on a rock is much more steady. TFS.
Larry

Photo Information

Copyright: John McLaird (jmcl) (14535)
Genre: 地方
Medium: 彩色
Date Taken: 2007-02-04
Categories: 自然
Camera: Olympus E 300, 58mm circular polarizer
Exposure：f/10.0, 1/320 seconds
Photo Version：Original Version
Theme(s)：Treescapes, Winter, Rivers & Streams, B&W Favorites, Malignant Narcissism [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2007-02-06 19:34
Favorites：2 [view]