Thanks everybody for nice words. As I mentioned numerously, Patagonia is a great place for photos, even though not everybody takes good photos of Patagonia and there is no guarantee that when you go, you will come back with a bunch of amazing shots. There are too many variables to control.
@ skibum5 -Thanks a lot. I truly enjoyed your comment regarding the photo of the week
Let's give it some time. We all know that many different things matter in the choice of the photo of the week.
@ Slabshaft-Interestingly enough, I had similar conversation on 500px with Marc Adamus and another fellow. We seem to be in agreement that nobody really owns a composition like nobody really owns a natural wonder publicly available (if there are no no assigned property rights). I don't agree that my take on Torres in the" Awakening Torres" is unoriginal, but it is just a matter of personal taste and person's knowledge about composition etc. You can see (or not see) that I had approach that was different than the one presented by Ian Plant. You can call me many things, but being unoriginal in my photography is probably not the best description. Anyway, as I mentioned, it is just a matter of taste. There is no requirement to like this photo nor appreciate it but calling somebody unoriginal is a bit of a risky statement so I would be careful with such statements.
Hmmm.
As the old saying goes, it's about the light, not the location. To say a person's image is unoriginal simply because you've seen an image taken before that looks similar in location is like saying that once you've seen one Green River Overlook, you've seen them all. No point looking anymore.
This forced me to look up Ian's photograph. Now as I click back and forth between the two, there are so many differences that they convey completely different feelings. Which is what it's really about.
As far as image of the week, you never know what will surface. Personally, I think voting should occur on just one day, else it's often the early bird that gets the worm...
Slabshaft wrote:
I like the picture, but I'm not sure how I feel about the composition. It's nearly identical to Ian Plant's, to the point of feeling unoriginal.
There are only a handful good spots from this side of the mountains. I wouldn't care that Ian took similar shots already. I'd take it too. I think this is good shot, very good in fact, originality from a location that becomes so popular now will be hard to achieve.
A W E S O M E !! I don't know any other way to put it. The combination of the Patagonian mountains and what seems to be an ever changing kaleidoscope sky - its just awesome! Dave
Artur - I have viewed Ian Plant's shot from this location and do not find your picture unoriginal at all. The lighting and tone of your shot is quite different and for it's worth I prefer your depiction of the scene.
Simply superb shot. I like how you kept the foreground dark while still maintaining lots of detail, which makes this a very pleasing and natural looking photograph.
Hmmm.....Personally, I would think at least mentioning where the inspiration for this comp came from would be a bit more honest. Everyone is praising you on the use of the shoreline to surround the peaks, including myself, but you never mentioned Ian Plant at all on your own. His is obviously the first shot like this, and concidering how massive a location like Patagonia is with so much untapped potential I assume there would be countless comps within walking distance from here. Other then the light, this is almost the same shot down to the inch now looking at them. Dont get me wrong, I have absolutely shot similar compositions as other big time photographers, on purpose and totally by chance, but I find it really cuts into the fun to finding something original. It can even put doubt in your mind whether you actually have the creativity to come up with something great on your own.
If this was an iconic location where the options are limited, I wouldnt even care about the similar comp. But for something this specific, I think mentioning Ian plant right off the start would have been a better idea. This is the internet so people will always find out one way or the other, and it would have killed any chance of this discussion about "originality"
Frankly when I was taking this photo, I didn't know that anybody had used similar composition before. I don't have time to surf the internet in search for somebody's compositions to make me inspired. I get plenty of inspiration on my own. In today's world full of self-identified by the possession of DSLR "photographers" one has to be creative and different to be able to live out of this work. Repeating somebody's work is just a wrong path.
I go to the place and shoot my photos because I see the good light/interesting spot, appealing composition etc.
I don't feel like I need to "cite" Ian Plant because I didn't use his work as inspiration , regardless the fact if some of you think that I did! It is your suspicion/opinion and you will have to live with it. I am in agreement with myself and this how I feel about this what I do. I also don't think that Ian Plant's photo looks like mine so I don't hurt his photo nor recognition. These are 2 different artistic approaches, different execution and different quality.
Side note: Recently, I saw a photos that used a very similar composition to my Candy like Patagonia and nobody credited me (you can surf internet and look for it). I don't run around and scream that I was the first to do it because it makes no sense. Everybody has right to take his/her own shot there without citing me. Similar situation with compositions of Marc Adamus. When you go to 500px, you can spot hundreds of "his" compositions. He is not running around kicking and screaming even though some of those repeated photos are exactly the same as his photos. Giving a credit to somebody's work is OK as along as you were inspired by that person and you feel that way. I wasn't so I won't cite.
I think this picture is just incredible. Seems pretty rare these days for landscape photographers to post single exposure images nowadays. Composition and PP is superb. On the other topic, even though this image is similar to Ian's shot there are still quite a few factors which make it unique. I personally don't really care if someone posts an image after mine taken from the identical spot. I would never expect to be "credited" in any sort of way. It also does not bother me to go to exact locations where others have taken amazing pics. I do try to come up with original compositions but this does not always happen. I say great pic Artur - well done!
I was in the same spot in March but didn't have luck at this location because the weather wasn't cooperating and the lake wasn't calm, so I had no reflection. Oh, there was with me 20 photographers taking the same shots I wonder how many of them credited Ian. Probably none.
