August 2014 - Admin's choice - Image of the month

**Marko** · 09-08-2014, 12:43 PM

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.

This month, congrats to Michaelaw for capturing Foggy Sunrise.

I chose this image for several reasons;

1- Lighting/Exposure- The fog and cloudiness in this image makes for some incredibly interesting and ethereal looking light. That said, it's up to the photographer to do something interesting with it and Michaelaw did a great job. Lots of room and variety to expose this image creatively and I like the overall exposure choices that were made. In particular, I like how the horizon's light (along with the sun of course) itself is also one of the focal points in this image.

2 - Composition/Framing - Yes the light was a photographer's wet dream to begin with but wonderful framing/compositional choices were made to create this image. I dig the intersecting diagonal hill lines at mid right and where their intersection was placed in the frame. The sun is beautifully placed near that intersection and close to one of the vertical and horizontal thirds of the image. Midground is the star of the show here but the inclusion of large parts of darker foreground and background helps makes that midground sing.

3 - Post processing - It doesn't look like there was tons of post processing in the image and that to me is normally a good thing. Looks like there was a decent amount of burning in all around the image which helps focus our eyes on the focal points.

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 Michaelaw!