"Critique an image thats speaks to you"

Serenity, by liveanoptimisticlife

In my opinion, this inspiring picture succeeds on a number of levels.

Firstly, it has been captured for a range of viewers: fellow photographers, travellers, people interested in natural Earth, and intends to display geographic features (the mountain, the lake) but also the abstract qualities of serenity and calmness. What confirms it's success is how it appeases all target audience's needs. It comprises a good point of focus, the tonal colours blend nicely, it encorporates a range of physical components and is visually interesting/attracting due to the reflection/mirroring achieved whilst working with water.

A standard photography technique that I think has been applied well is to capture the main object slightly off centre and as can be seen, we have the mountain just to the left of centre, but this is then also balanced out by the boat off centre to the right. Furthermore, the blacks of the boat, juxtaposed against the transquil pink/purple of the lake makes for further visual distinction. It plays nicely on the eye.

The piece fits in nicely amongst other pieces of ambient landscape photography.

In terms of difficulties that could have been faced, obviously a sunset happens once a day, and is only for a limited amount of time. Therefore, capturing it would mean there wasn't a lot of time to get it just right.

When considering where the creator could go from here, it would be interesting to see the image captured at different stages throughout the day, so we can see the progression from morning to midday to night. This could be achieved by digital alteration of this picture, but one of the defining points of the picture is that it captures natural beauty, and so to capture nature naturally, without interference, would be nice to follow up on.

@