Mike Patterson
October 2026 - Roadside Artists
Original
About the Image(s)
I captured this image of two artists who set up their easels along a highway in Northern New Mexico. They turned out to be fairly prominent in the Southwestern art world, with their paintings selling for several thousand dollars each. What attracted me about was the simple story it told of two women enjoying the outdoors along a busy highway overlooking a lovely river valley in the fall. Shot with a Canon 7D using a 24-105 mm lens at 24 mm. The settings were ISO400, f/8.0 at 1/400 second. Basic processing, especially lightening the shadows, in Lightroom.
6 comments posted
A good story and capture. I like that you didn't crop the right--it adds more depth to the scene. Only suggestion would be to crop the top clouds out. My eye wants to wonder there. Posted: 10/05/2026 22:27:37
The guardrail leads the eye from the lower right toward the artists, who in turn move the eye out to the middle and the colorful vistas out ahead of them. The winding lines provided by the meandering water adds to the composition, and contrasts with the cold hard steel of the railings. I agree with Al about cropping down a bit from the top. Nice job. Posted: 10/11/2026 22:25:54
Lovely scene and nice composition; complimented by the 'S' curves of the water. For me the scene is the focal point,the artists are secondary, because if I look at the artists, I keep flipping from one to the other. Posted: 10/15/2026 22:35:34
The guard rail and the meandering river create a nice diagonal through the image. It might be just a bit over brightened, but it is nicely done and a very good find!
Posted: 10/17/2026 21:50:31
Posted: 10/17/2026 21:50:31
What is it about painters standing along a busy road. I passed one in Oregon last month…crazy!!! This is a lovely capture of the two artists and a dazzling fall landscape. I do suggest cropping the clouds out at the top. If possible add a couple of inches of space at the bottom, so the artists foot is not so close to the border. Otherwise, nicely captured! Posted: 10/25/2026 16:12:04
It's a nice capture of the two artists and the fall colors.
I feel you brightened all of the image and lost the beautiful color of the fall scene and the sky. I did the crop at the top in LR. Not sure if LR can add canvas but PS can. Posted: 10/25/2026 18:38:42
I feel you brightened all of the image and lost the beautiful color of the fall scene and the sky. I did the crop at the top in LR. Not sure if LR can add canvas but PS can. Posted: 10/25/2026 18:38:42