Coastal Storm Approaching

The sky before a storm is always spectacular, and so I wanted to see

if I could get some good shots down at the beach before the storm hit.

It was actually quite windy, with sand and water flying at my lens

(and me), and so I didn't stay as long as I had wanted to, but I did

manage to get one shot that I liked.

Comments and feedback are welcome.

You did make a nice picture.  I like it.  Although I must say that the rock on the right takes away the attention of the lovely sky.  Maybe a different cropping (square?) might make an even stronger picture. 

Beautiful image , outstanding light and composition, wishing you all of the best.

Thanks for the feedback.

Ben, I intentionally placed the hill into the frame, so I don't think I want to crop it out. :-)  I agree that it pulls attention away from the sky, but I also think that a shot with just surf and sky wouldn't have been as visually interesting as one with some good foreground element in it.  I also liked how the light played against the warmer tones of the rock and vegetation.  I definitely intend to go back to this location, so I will play around with different crops and see what alternatives work.

Hey Michael! Thanks for your recent comments on my postings and portfolio. This is a beautiful scene! Your blending/HDR is pretty good but a trained eye can pick up a slight halo and a slight shadow, but even the best blenders have to contend with those byproducts. I really love the bright reflected highlights on the ocean surface. As far as the use of diagonals, for this one I would say it approaches being right side heavy in as far as composition goes. Somehow, I feel the shoreline has been cutoff in the LL. To draw a comparison, the image from my portfolio that you eluded to, the diagonal runs across the entire frame (not corner to corner, but instead from above the lower corner to below the upper corner). This provides symmetry and balance but does not cutoff the foreground nor the sky. There are several other examples in my Spring 2010 folder, "Sprung" gives the best example. I'm not saying that this image doesn't work, although I think the best choice here would have been to exclude much of the sky and include more of the shoreline, although I am not aware of all the factors. This is a wonderful sky, so it's always a challenge to exclude something this good, but it is more a matter of discipline to make the best compositional choices. Well, I hope this helpful commentary. I am always eager to provide useful feedback as well as receive it!

Thanks for the feedback, Mark.  I always like to get pointers and how I can improve my photographs.

Truth be told, this isn't an HDR image, but rather a single image that had enough going for it that I just needed to do some selective dodging & burning to bring it to life.  I do know, though, that I sometimes miss some detail areas which end up standing out to the trained eye.  There's another photo in this gallery which is of the same scene but which is an HDR image.  I tend to like this one better, but I'd be interested in your opinion.

I hear what you're saying about the foreground hill maybe being too dominant.  The unfortunate thing is that there actually wasn't any beach that was visible to my lower left.  Were I to have moved the camera down or to the left a bit, I would have gotten the bit of dirt path that led along the cliff edge (not nearly as nice as the sky or foreground rock, in my opinion).  But I think I will go back there and try some different angles to see what works.  I suspect the odds of a repeat sky performance are small, and so I may not be tempted to fill so much of my frame with clouds. :-)

Thanks again for the feedback.

Michael, as a follow up, I also thought I might mention that the diagonal in this image exits the frame at the bottom middle. I would prefer to see a diagonal exit above the bottom corner, somewhere closer to the bottom third, for better balance. Any lines or diagonals exiting near the middle of the frame can present a compositional challenge. For instance, your horizon line exits near the bottom third which is proper. Still, these are silly rules that can stifle creativity, so look at them as helpful guidelines, but don't let them inhibit your creativity. I would like to look at your other example, but the link did not work. I will spend more time in your portfolio and see if anything jumps out at me. You have an exceptional eye for landscapes!