Swan in Belmar

This scene has done very well on website and I was curious about how

it would be received here on PN. This was shot very early morning

before a dive trip on the North Atlantic. The sky was so perfect, the

Swan so unusual and the scene so nice that I took a three or four

shots. I processed this through CS5 and posted to my site. When I look

at it I see the photographic flaws but I wonder what my fellow

photographers will see vs. what my clients/customers have seen.

It's a nice shot -- you had particularly good clouds.  I wish the swan's head were separated from the piling, preferably with the swan caught just a bit earlier thereby solving two "problems" at once (the other being the centering).

This would have been a tough shot for me, because things are happening so fast.  I don't like the dock on the left because of all of the distractions.  I think the swan "fits" better with the right side of the frame, but it's moving away from that side.  I might have flipped to a vertical format with the intention of cropping later, or I might have stayed horizontal but panned to the right to eliminate the dock.  Bottom line for me is I wish the swan had been caught earlier.  I also don't know how much room you have to work with below.  I'm an armchair photographer imagining the swan moving into the frame, with great clouds and a sleek boat in the back ground, and some great reflections in the water.

Joseph,  Following Stephen's thinking, I tinkered with the image creating this vertical.  It's a compromise - I was just experimenting.  I removed that piling with the content aware tool.  If you like this the boat at right could be moved too.  Actually, this just makes a different image.  Nice image.  Larry

I like the original picture as it is.  The swan is moving toward the center.  There are boxes on the dock on the left, a large boat on the right.  This suggests human activity in the day ahead, but these things stand idle now.  There is conflict between now and later.  There is a story here.  If you remove these elements, the picture becomes just another pretty calendar picture.  I would leave it alone, as it.

The clouds are wonderful and I do like the reflected colours also. As for the composition I would pick out all the best bits of everyones suggestions, from Larrys version I would use the central part of the image (where he managed to make the post behind the swans head invisible) and just a tiny crop of the far right post, everything else I would leave alone.  But in all honesty if you decided to change nothing it would remain a very aesthetically pleasing image. Nice work Joe! 

Best Regards

Alf

Beautiful image and nothing more to add. My first reaction was great shot and I wish you had separation of the swan's head from the piling.  All the best.

Best regards Joseph!

PDE

The only suggestions I have is to crop away the boxes on the left and to remove the pile above the swans head.

Well done,

Ben

Lovely composition and the post process is spot on in this shoot too.

Great work.

Best regards Tore