Ebb and Flow

A crop from another near miss, I like the feeling of movement in this image. It is

another one that I debated about posting. Your comments are most welcome, as alays,

thanka.

Amazing tones throughout and a solid overall abstraction. I like the contrast between warm foreground and silver everywhere else. It looks tight in the upper left where the water is flowing over the edge of the rock. You probably kept it tight for a reason--pushing us over into the upper right.

The compositon works, but it is quite busy..so i think i prefer a top crop wich will lead to a more panoramic look where the FG plays against the BG without the breaking waves and give a very fine balance...as i see it...(even further away from a square ;-) ).... Did you try different shutter speeds? wonder if it would benefit from a longer exposure, by calming things down a bit.

Thanks folks.

David, you are right about the tightness at the top but the rest of the image necessitated it. What I saw was a nice balance between the incoming wave and the rush of water coming back out to meet it.

 

Atle, this was just a shot while I killed a little time waiting for the sunset light to develop. I'm afraid that it's a one off. I didn't see this at the time. This is a little faster than most of my stuff and I was pleased with the result.

Another excellent addition Dave, as you know i'm a big fan of your work. Excellent!

Hi Jeff. I think it's a fantastic movement you recorded here indeed, but I do feel that it's a bit tight indeed. Wondering whether we could see a bit more of what was at the top and at the bottom. I'm not completely giving up on the hope that we may be able to arrange a square, here - well, at least, not giving up YET. :-)

OK, here's the full frame. I would be delighted if you can find a square in there. I have tried :-}

Jeff, here is one. Works for me, what about you ? Wonderful golden tones and movement of waves.

Thanks Peter. When I cropped this one, I thought that the top line of rocks distracted from the movement of the incoming wave. I have a sneaking feeling that what you have done may be better. Let me contemplate it for a while.

 

I feel sure that Marc will venture an opinion too.

I think your original works a bit better (sorry Peter) but since the consensus seems to be that a square crop would be best I'll give you my take. I really stripped it down as you can see. Who ever said less is more ;-)

Thanks Ton. That turns my 39MP image into about 18MP but still retains what I was trying to get from the crop originally. I like the tighter image as it focuses tighter attention on the movement.

 

Thanks to you too Peter. It is great when someone takes the time to work on another image. I do appreciate it.

This one does not work for me in a square format. All of the interesting aspects are spread across the lower portion of the frame. The quality of light is best in the foreground, particularly on the wet sand and the stepped rocks. The dynamic between the circular swirl in the sand and the same shape echoed in the wave just out from the bottom step and the contrasting hard 90 degree angles in the rock are what make the image in terms of composition. Everything else distracts from and undermines that relationship and takes away from the balance. I like the warmth of the late day sun and the shutter speed seems appropriate softening the water but still retaining much of the energy and flow.

 

For what it may be worth here is my crop.

Gordon, thanks for joining in. I have really enjoyed the amount of action that this so-so image has created, and really appreciate all the time that has been expended on it.

I find I'm looking for geometric shapes here to give the whole composition some guts - the circle bottom right, the stepped rectangles of the rocks across the centre. So I'd forget any formats that weaken those strong lines, and I'd cut off the top third just above the left hand rectangular rock to emphasize the contrast between curves and straight lines, leaving a stepped diagonal across the frame, ending in the swirling circle around the rock bottom right.

Thanks Kezia, Are you suggesting cropping a little more off Gordon's variant? It's funny how I started off wanting to include the incoming wave but have ended uop with it gone and a better image.

Sorry for coming back a bit late to this wonderfully interesting discussion. Well yes, Jeff: I'll indeed "venture an opinion"...

 

I vote Peter Krenek... Oooops, sorry... He wasn't a candidate for the US presidential elections, was he...? Never mind: I do like his posted square crop very much, and that will be my choice...:-) I am honestly convinced that the distant rocks are not a distraction at all. My views on this sort of things is that way too many people see distractions everywhere on this web site and similar sites. If you are taking a picture of a complex story or a complex natural scene, I think this complexity is just part of its essence, and you can decide to keep and even to emphasize this complexity, if you wish to. As long as the secondary center of interest is not overpowering the main subject's, the hierarchy remains within the frame, and there's order, and it'sperfectly ok.

 

BUT... I'd even venture another opinion...:-) I think the original framing - rectangular - made a lot of sense too. My take is that, by trying to simplify it - i.e. by cropping these far rocks -, you have in fact made it feel tight.

 

For me, whether square or rectangle (and I still prefer Peter Krenek's square by a tiny margin), I would love to keep the distant rocks within this frame... I think they add to the sense of complexity, while also adding depth to the whole scene. With them, the story is imo more complete. Without them, the story is, I'd say, poorer.

 

As a side-note, I need not "looking for" geometrical shapes here, because I'd say THEY are looking for me. Meaning the stairs are indeed strong and very obvious, which gives them the main role in the play. But to me, the distant rocks are a second "stairs-shaped line", and therefore act as an echo to the main one, and that way, the sea seems now kind of "trapped" between front and back stairs lines, if you see what I mean.

 

Just my own personal subjective and probably silly opinion - but I'll stick to it, like most idiots like me always do anyway...:-) Cheers.

Thanks Marc. It has been a great discussion. I'm delighted that people have joined in with suggestions. I've learnt a lot from it.

As a rather late note, I hadn't seen the original when I made my suggestion. That is actually my favourite. For me, the top wave weakens the composition when cropped as you show it here, but in the original with the zigzag of rocks it rather adds to it I think.