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Winner Chosen - November 2013 - Admin's choice - Image of the month
Hi members,
In case you are new around here this is where the Admin (me) chooses one excellent photo each month from all the photos nominated by other members during that month in the Member's monthly choice forum.
Just so it's clear, the photo I choose is not necessarily the best one of the month. I've come to realize it's not really logical to pit images from totally different genres against each other. That's why there are categories in photo contests.
My goal is to simply choose an excellent photo and talk about why I think it rocks.
Congrats to Mbrager for creating Reservoir landscapes.
I chose this image for several reasons:
1 - Tonal balance - The tonal balance here is flat out gorgeous. The bluish tones in the snow compliment the tones in the water and sky extremely well. It's a pleasure to look at this image.
2 - HDR Delicious - This is fabulous HDR and it's not overdone to my eye. HDR is a tool, like a saw, and that's how I like to see it used. A saw embellishes almost nothing. Once in a rare while I like an HDR that has no bearing on reality because the image is so fantastic (for some reason), it trumps its lack of reality. Photos like this are 1 in 500 though. The rest of the 499 images normally make me go 'meh' and I feel I should high five the computer just as much as the photographer. Not here. This photo is the 'normal' and correct reason to use HDR and that is to capture tones that would likely be unavailable otherwise....and it's very well done.
3 - Layering - I quite like the layering here of snow, water, then sky. It makes for a lovely scene.
I do have some very minor nits in that I would have prefered the sky be cropped a bit, and to my eye, the image slopes about 1/4 of a degree to the right. I overlooked this because the other elements are stronger than these nits and I just love looking at this image.
For all these reasons, this is my choice for image of the month. Since we all have opinions, some members may disagree with my choice. That's cool but THIS thread is not the place for debate over my pick, NOR is it the place to further critique the image. The purpose here is to suggest strong elements in the photo that we may learn from.
Congrats again to mbrager for capturing this lovely reservoir!
- Please connect with me further 
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