Driftwood

I appreciate what you have made of so little. Colours are a delight, the swell and foam provide motion - and the end result is a pleasure to behold. Thanks.

A simple subject, well seen. I like the disturbed water fading to smooth as it recedes

How does it feel

To be on your own

Like a piece of wood

Like a complete unknown

Like a rolling stone.

 

I like the water and the shapes that it has created around the log. Very nice colors, beautiful lighting. Has a serene quality to it. Nice "abstract" feel as well. I would hang it on my wall.

 

The dark top left corner upsets the balance a bit. Also, I find the log a tad too big, given the angle you have chosen. Especially because, IMHO, the primary subject is the shape the water has made around it, and the log is a foil of sorts. A lower angle, or stepping back (up?) a bit may have given a different but better picture, perhaps. I don't care for compositional rules, but the central positioning of the log seems static especially when juxtaposed with the rushing water. Maybe that was what you intended.

If so, crop a bit on the left, the log might as well be dead center.

Truly wonderful, Bernhard! And it's really bothering me that I can't find anything wrong with it... what is such a critique going to help you with? However, I'll be thinking about it some more and if something comes to mind I'll let you know ;)

 

My first impression? The colours are great, I like the composition and the contrast between the movement of the water and the stillness of the wood is really nice. It feels like this piece of driftwood has stranded(?) only moments ago on my own desktop! You could give it a bit more space, perhaps in the foreground, stepping back wouldn't harm. But it is very striking as it is. I disagree with Niranjan in that I don't think it's too much in the centre.

 

There are two things I keep asking myself though. Is the oceanside in the foreground or background? And what time of day did you take this? It looks like a reasonably long exposure.

 

Anyway, great work! Regards,

Hard to guess what really happens here, but very nice colors, and composing.

Great picture.

One thing that made me take the picture was the big piece of driftwood that was lying absolutely still, despite the waves and despite the fact that it must have been swept ashore by the waves before. So a little bit of a static (or peaceful) feel would be in agreement with how I saw the picture. What you see here is full frame and I agree, to have it centered better, would be good, however I hesitate to crop this as this would result in even less space around the wood. I would have liked more space around, this shot was taken vertically down at an angle of I guess 30 to 45 degrees, and I had only my 28mm with me. Even if I had had something shorter, my feet, that were just below the lower edge of the frame, would have been in the picture. Although I was already standing in the water, I think I tried to step back a little, but the perspective didn't feel right.

 

As to the shooting conditions: This was taken at sunset on a west facing beach, the lower edge of the frame facing the ocean. This was handheld, so I probably used 1/30 or 1/15s, hoping this would be long enough for the water to blur, but short enough not too introduce too much camerashake.

 

In retrospect a step ladder and a very tall tripod would have been appropriate :)

Not to spoil the party, but this doesn't do much for me. The very first thing that I find disturbing is how squared up the shot is. The second thing is that the water is coming toward the viewer, and just doesn't feel right (in my opinion of course).

To me what is pleasing and interesting about this is the blue light, sand and water. The blue saturation is very interesting, and as the author said, a light you only get at the end of the day.

 

However, the same light or treatment has done a dis-service to the wood. The wood, which should by some rights be the central focus of the picture, has a lot of the same dark blue. On the wood, it is not so attractive. It obscures the interesting character and texture of the wood.

 

Then the composition; it seems wrong to me. You have the central object pretty much in the middle, and the law of thirds has been violated (call the composition police!)

 

I tried it vertically and with some cropping and it seems more pleasing to me. Even the wood doesn't seem so dark and blue to me, since the broad expanse of blue above it (it would be to the the right of it in the vertical picture) is now gone.

 

Well done.

I like both for:

the stillness of the wood emphasised by the (mostly) centered position and the blur of the water around it and;

the warm colours of the wood against the blue water background.

Great shot of an otherwise mundane subject. The movement and colours in the water really lift this beyond the ordinary.

 

There seems to be a slight discolouration in the top left though, which makes me wonder whether this was cast by clouds in the sky. This also makes me curious at the bigger picture and what was around the log.

 

The off centre composition is slightly odd but not too distracting.

 

Would have liked to have seen this from a lower angle, bringing in the horizon and sky.

beautiful in its simplicity. Hope you made a nice big print 8^)>

I like the shutter speed you chose. Slow enough to add motion, but not so slow was to render the water a shapeless white blur.