Samantha, Lake Michigan

This is WAAAAY cool. I absolutely love the texture. I need to get my hands on an ND Grad. They are on my Christmas list! What time exposure did you set this exposure at? It looks slow...maybe 1/10 second or so? Very nice!

It was about 1/5. I waited until the water receded a past the tip of the log to make it look like the water flowed from the tip. Actually, the wash is about 5 feet from the tip.

Nice capture!

I like the softness of this image... it is soft without being soft focused which I am right now sick of. I am assuming that you otained to look via a long exposure? I also like the gold hues.

Thanks Heather. Actually the "softness" is created by the water seeping into the sand, not the long exposure or lack of DOF. I focused on the far tip of the log and used f16. Even the closest sand is very sharp because I was tipped down on a slope.

Great image, good composition, nice soft golden hues.

Beautiful image, in contrast to my more industrial beach scene. The golden colours are wonderfully soft and dreamy. Very nice technique with the long(ish) exposure, well planed. How many shots did it take to get it right? It must have been tricky with the sun, its going down right?

Thanks Peter. That's a funny story. I drove 30 miles to get here, hiked a mile in 30mph winds, found this log, composed the shot, fought with the waves moving it all around, metered, adjusted the grad, etc. Finally, I took the shot and my battery died. I didn't hear the shutter open, didn't have time to load new batteries (8 AA's with sand filling my camera in the dark). I figured it was a wasted night. I was pleasantly surprised to see this on film. 1 very lucky shot :o)

Original sunset shot: I like the angle. Maybe I'd crop a little bit the low part

Beautiful. I like the composition a lot. The placement of the log is great.

Fantastic shot!

Simple and very, very effective. Very beautiful and top marks for composition!

David, I assume this is one of the Great Lakes. I hadn't realized Michigan borders on no less than four of them. You're almost as water bound as we are here. I quite like the vertical format and simple composition. The sunset's nicely understated too, nothing garish. The log reminds me of a yellow labrador I used to have, who loved to lie about on warm days, with her head pointing into the sun. She's long gone now, but thanks for the memory.

Now that you say it I can see a labrador there too... maybe my yellow lab Samantha, rest in peace :o) Thank YOU for the reminder Hanna... and now I can give this one a meaningful name!

My mouth is still open...

great image - the eerie feel of flowing water is great contrast to the sharp sunset

Beautiful soft tones in this image, with nice lines and great display of textures. If I may make one suggestion for the display of the image: the horizon line feels a little oversharp, so perhaps it would be better to mask out the sharpening just around the horizon. Very nice work. Enjoy.

Thanks Marshall. You're right the horizon is much sharper and higher contrast than the rest and probably shouldn't be. To me it feels like the area above the horizon is stacked onto the bottom.

 

If I ever print this one I'll probably need to soften the horizon line to maintain the same soft feeling throughout.

 

Thank you for pointing that out. It's something that bothered me, but I couldn't quite figure out what was wrong.

This stunning work. A masterpiece.

Glad to help. And it's nice to know that it was helpful. Onward...

great use of colour and detail in the stick is fantastic

Lovely shot David. This is one of those photos that grabs your attention as you look through a portfolio. The colours, composition, lighting are just about as good as it gets. 7/7

Agree with previous comment, is one of my favs from your splendid landscapes, composition with foreground wood and shore line is just excellent! golden colors really enhance it

Just when I thought I had seen it all, this comes along. PERFECT!!!!!

Well I don't know about perfect, but for me it is a perfect reminder of Samantha.