The disapeared trail.

[Mr. Quiet]

I took this picture at Gooseberry Falls, Minnesota, when I was camping with my family.

http://thecs.smugmug.com/photos/389315481_xbG9v-L.jpg

[Kalrog]

I don't get it. There isn't anything in this picture that draws me to it. Based on your title, I was expecting to see a trail that stopped somehow, but I honestly don't see any trail at all - I see a rock.

[Mr. Quiet]

You do not see the steps?

[michswiss]

The composition is lacklustre. I don't feel any emotional pull to the location. Maybe if the 'steps' felt like they were leading somewhere. Was it really a trail or an interesting piece of geology? If it was a trail, maybe trying to recompose to hint at where the trail might lead you. To an old home, into the mountains, toward a field, river. Trails take you places.

Another comment is the lack of visual pop. I noticed lichen growing on the stones, can you boost the colours. I can imagine they'd be grey-green against the more earthy greys of the stone itself.

[Blaker]

I took this picture at Gooseberry Falls, Minnesota, when I was camping with my family.

http://thecs.smugmug.com/photos/389315481_xbG9v-L.jpg


No color
No composition
No focal point
No impact
No emotion

I guess I'm wondering what you were trying to convey with this photo?
What did you see that the rest of us aren't seeing?

[Kalrog]

You do not see the steps?

I think I see what you are calling steps. And to answer your question - no I did not initially see them as steps. I truly did see the whole thing as just a rock.

I agree with Blaker - you saw something in this picture that we aren't. I would love to know what it is.

[Mr. Quiet]

I think that if I took this picture at a different angle it wopuld look much better. But, to answer the Q, the steps.

[timk519]

Others have said what I'd say as well - two problems I saw with this pic was the rock in the foreground, and the grass obscuring the portion of the rock that had the "steps" you were trying to show.

A crop and some retouching like so:

http://valkyrie.smugmug.com/photos/433112707_m9BHe-O.jpg (http://valkyrie.smugmug.com/gallery/4557307_rfPrk#433112707_m9BHe)

helps bring the sense of a "path" out more, but the grass in the foreground is still distracting and "gets in the way."

[Mr. Quiet]

BRAVO!!! Thank you! I do not know why I had so nuch truble with this picture, I just could not get the right feeling for it.

[Chrissiebeez_NL]

i've been messing with it in photoshop and what i think is missing is something that draws the viewer in (among other things to be blunt). If you burn the area next to the stone so that the stones make an sweep from the lower right to the upper left, the eye travels along the 'road' into infinity. that way the steps are more obvious, the notion of road is clearer and there is a element of composition in it. The crop suggested two posts earlier doesnt do anything for me.. still no composition and overly processed. but that is a matter of taste of course :rolleyes

try it out and let me know if it improves your photo :thumb

[Mr. Quiet]

I look at this picture again and ask myself, WHAT IN THE WORLD???? It totally lacks subject, power, and........EVERYTHING!