Sorry for posting also to the nature Q&A

-- Adrian Sorescu (guide@dial.roknet.ro), July 29, 1998

Answers

Hey I like it. Your horizon line seems to be tilted a bit, and some guru of the rule of thirds may take issue with your split of the frame. But as a picture that makes me "wish I were there" it succeeds. I would crop the top 1/4 and the right of the frame as needed to get the same porportion. Mike

-- Mike Green (mgprod@mindspring.com), July 29, 1998.

what potential! could you have moved to your left, and paid more attention to your horizon? cropping, of course, is a personal matter, but my preference would be less sky. excellent exposure, and a beautiful place.

-- wayne harrison (wayno@netmcr.com), July 29, 1998.

My suggestions: I certainly would have taken a few shots of this scenery to try some different compositions. Waiting a minute may have allowed the dark cloud shadows on the mountain, which may not have been obvious to the eye, to move away. Always check the horizon is horizontal Maybe try a polarising filter to enrich the colour of vegetation/rocks and snow(I assume)and highlight the clouds As for cropping the image I agree with Mike.

-- Adam Liedloff (a.liedloff@qut.edu.au), July 29, 1998.

I want to go!

Is this well above treeline? The snow looks like the permanent snowfields we see in the Cascades, here. You've posted a couple images from this area... Can you tell us more about it and how you travelled through? Is this a popular hiking area? About how high up were you?

The contrast of the snow, small lakelets and vegetation is really interesting. I'd like to have seen a little more of the foreground snow and a little less empahsis on sky, in the interest of a slightly more balanced composition. The tilt of the horizon is a bit of a distraction...

If you can, you might consider taking a small tripod on your treks. It helps shooting, because it forces one to take a more methodical approach. They can build muscles, too. ;>

A straighter horizon and more foreground snow would enhance the illusion of the trail and the horizon converging at infinity (ok, that's pushing it, right? ;>). It's the old art-school concept of "line"...the horizon forms one line & the diagonal line of the snow/trail provides contrast...

Time of day is everything in outdoor photography... But I also know all too well that you have to get the shots you can when you can (it's why I've started going backpacking again).

The overall effect is nice. Please excuse my nitpicking. Keep shooting and stay visible. :>

Best regards,

Keith

PS: I still mainatin the best photography course someone can take is a beginning "Art Design" class. You'll be amazed at how you think about images afterward. There's a lot they don't teach about composition in photography school. ;> There's much more to life than "rule of thirds & "s" curves... ;>

-- Keith Clark (ClarkPhotography@spiritone.com), July 30, 1998.

Thanks for comments ! I did it !I'm glad you're interested in the area!

The picture was shooted from the main ridge 2300m(it was a 4 days trek on the main ridge ;the whole ridge takes 5-6 days).The chalet in the valley is at 2100m altitude. I'm carrying a tripod (for building muscles :-)) but only last week I found a new setup for it (shorter legs), so I can quickly pop it from my backpack and shoot.Until now I was carrying it dissasembled in the backpack (it is a bad choice to carry it tied on the backpack , at least there in the mountains IMHO) and it was time consuming to mount it for only one picture.

2000-2300 is the altitude of the main ridge,80km long.Peaks are going up to 2544m (highest of them , Moldoveanu).They are very spectacular.The whole main ridge is considered(IN WINTER) a 5B route (russian grading sistem). There are a lot of secondary ridges , the steepest to North.On these one there are not treking routes,only alpine (mostly easy ones , 3A).In the winter north ridges are harder , of course; the route difficulty grows by 1 grade.The south ridges are also high(above 2000m )but longer (10-15km)and not so rocky and steep.

This year the snow was present even in July , even on the south side of the valleys.There were some fields of snow to cross on my trek , on pretty steep slopes , and I congratulated myself for bringing the ski poles with me. Is this valley , Podragu , the snow in the picture was all I can find :-). Fagaras mountains is a popular trekking area , despite the fact that from all the Romania's mountains it the most demanding one regarding trekker's efforts.From the railway station there are 12-16 km until you reach the base of the mountain.After that you have to go for 6-8 hours(in winter 8-10 or more)to reach the ridge. There are a lot of germans trekking in Fagaras mountains , especially in winter.They like the wilderness from Transylvanian Alps . In the whole massive there are only 6 chalets and 3-4 shelters , but I like that !!! So , in summer anyone can trek here .In winter , you have to take care.There are avalanches after every massive snowfall.And it snows sometimes for days!In winter the climate is VERY harsh (during the night - 20 , -30 degree Celsius).Last summer in June in only one night there was a massive snow fall: 1m of snow in one night !!!! You can see my winter pictures(cheap P&S camera , so the quality is so-so)at http://www.ciid.pub.ro/~oricum/poze/Moldoveanu/ulthm.htm.Go at lest to the page 4of7 and 6of7.Believe me , you won't regret ! Maps of Fagaras mountains at http://www.ciid.pub.ro/~oricum/Harti/fagaras/ulthm.htm To see their placement look at http://www.geo.strategies.ro/scripts/colmap3.pl?1 Fagaras mountains span from Sibiu to Brasov. Other Fagaras web-pages : http://www.snafu.de/~werlebu/index.html(in german and romanian .This guy learned to speak romanian by himself becouse of his love for our mountains) http://fig.cox.miami.edu/Faculty/Tom/personal/romania/romhike.html(english) http://danube.cs.umd.edu:8080/Carpathians/Carpathians/Fagaras/index.html(english.very good) Feel free to email me !

-- Adrian Sorescu (guide@dial.roknet.ro), July 31, 1998.