Comments Please, Winter Shots

[Bonito]

Hi everyone,
This will be my first post with some pictures. I would love your comments on
these two shots I took right after a snow storm had ended. I know they are
very "blueish" but I like the feel, and that is how they came out of the camera. I shot in raw, daylight WB, ISO 200, 1/100 and 1/80 hand held with
my Sigma 17-70 macro lens.
Any thing you think I could have done to improve my shots, I would love to
hear.

[tonydee]

I like them both. I expect some people would prefer the snow brighter, but I like it muted and not competing with the sky. WB is fine for me. Not sure the composition of either is exceptional, though it's an effort to ignore the sky and consider it, which means you've done well. Both have a tall tree on the left framing the image a bit - which is reasonable, common practice. I like the two small foreground trees in the first image, but the second image lacks apparent depth as the foreground is weaker, and the first two significant trees are in line. Still, the first image has many smaller trees of about the same height then a big gap to the background. All I can say is neither's quite ideal, and next time you're out - with or without snow and beautiful skies - look at the trees as you move around and develop your eye for spacing, distances, balance. Cheers, Tony

[Bonito]

Thanks Tony, for your input - it is much appreciated. Glad you liked the "blue" feel.
I did not think about having trees in all the different regions to create a depth. Thanks.

Anyone else out there - I would really love to hear your thoughts.

[seaside]

Taking in a large expanse with just trees and clouds can be challenging. The colors are nice and the scene is very peaceful. You could widen up and get something interesting in the foreground to lead your eye into the image.

Also, the second image has what appears to be tracks in the snow which for me distracts from the image somewhat. Both images are fairly small and not easy to see all the details - maybe post larger shots next time??

Very good images nonetheless!

[Bonito]

Thanks Chris,
I read the sticky on how to prepare an image for uploading, but every time I went
to upload it told me it was too big! So I had to keep making it smaller and smaller before
it would let me upload. I will try to figure this out for next time.... sorry so small.
Any links on how to get the image sized right would be appreciated.

[seaside]

Below is a link with image posting help. In PS (CS4) I use File > Automate > fit image set to 800 X 800. Then File > Save for web. Just adjust down to less than 100k. Save it in a file then upload the newly sized image. There may be methods other use too.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=290249