Blue Belle

Your thoughts and all comments welcome. Taken in St Ives Harbour Cornwall, a busy image taken in a busy harbour. Comments on composition, lighting and the use of b&w would be appreciated.

The scene does have charm, especially the hillside in the background. I don’t think it makes for a good portrait of the Blue Belle, though. The boat gets lost in a tangle and the close-up perspective on the boat, with all else going on, just feels forced. Maybe if you’d stepped back a ways (assuming you could) and just incorporated Blue Belle into the overall scene, it would have worked better for me as just a busy but sweet harbor scene.

 

The processing fights with the charm of the scene. It’s so severe a black and white treatment, complete with black sky. I understand black daytime skies when there’s a reason to emphasize melodrama or foreboding, but in a scene like this it feels over the top. Black and white, especially in certain more easy-going contexts like this, has the potential for great subtlety and I would have gone in that direction here instead of such an overly dramatic rendering.

I think this tells a story of a harbor that goes dry at low tide, where we see Blue Belle and other boats marooned until the tide returns. In that context, the village in the BG works for me. I might have called this "Low Tide". Also, I'd de-emphasize the clouds. I think that they're commanding too much attention to fit my story or the Blue Belle story. Other than the sky, I like the B&W processing.

 

When I look closely at the buildings near the edges of the image, I see a little distortion. It's like backwards barrel distortion. Did your digital lens optimization do that in RAW conversion, or did you try to manually correct and go a little bit too far? I think that the average viewer might not notice that, but we photographers are into close examination, if not pixel-peeping.

Many thanks for your comments and advice, I've pp'd the image again following some of the critiques and comments. New title "Harbour view"

Many thanks for your comments and advice, I've pp'd the image again following some of the critiques and comments. New title "Harbour view"

 

Yes, I much prefer that interpretation. I think that you raised EV on the boats slightly, which I like. The clouds are still there, but not commanding our attention near as much. Nicely done.

So call me picky: I like the foreground tones better in the original version, and the sky and town better in the 2nd. I agree the image is quite busy, but the title change for the 2nd image is an excellent example of how just knowing the title can clarify and empower the photographer's intent for the viewer.