Wave Imprints

It was a dull day weather-wise when I visited my favorite beach on Washington's coast, and I knew B&W would probably be the best way to process the photographs.  A number of large, light-colored boulders, very distinct from those in or near the water, are found along the upper reaches of the beach.  Wave action during high tides piles up sand on their upper side, and waves and receding water leave their marks below the boulders.  Rain eventually  sent me back to my camper, but the three hours spent in solitude on this beach were wonderful.  Your comments and suggestions will be appreciated.  Thanks.

It was a dull day weather-wise when I visited my favorite beach on

Washington's coast, and I knew B&W would probably be the best way to

process the photographs. A number of large, light-colored boulders,

very distinct from those in or near the water, are found along the upper

reaches of the beach. Wave action during high tides piles up sand on

their upper side, and waves and receding water leave their marks below

the boulders. Rain eventually sent me back to my camper, but the

three hours spent in solitude on this beach were wonderful. Your

comments and suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks.

I like that very much.  The stone on the foreground has a very interesting shape. The wave pattern, mark  on the sand, highlighting the rocks even better.  The  composition is perfect. The b&w tone is beautiful warm black. My favorite of your latest images.

Are we going to B&W lately more and more?

Bela, thanks for visiting.  I usually prefer color, but recently it seems that the subject and/or weather call for B&W.  I'm less confident with B&W, but hopefully more practice will remedy that.

Stephen, I don't know, if you have any wet darkroom experience, but I tell you, if you master the traditional dodging and burning, local or  over all, or selectively, blur or sharpen selectively and many other different controlled process, you can create better b&w images then using any of those computerized software, Like "Silver Effect", etc., etc. I never use any of those machine (computer)  art tools, including HDR (I actually hate them when I see them)  The only tool I using, is, Photoshop CS5,  and my imagination. I wish, the dodge & Burn tools had more choice then,  -Highlight-Midtones-Shadows. It would be a more creative a Dodge-Burn tool, if it has a four shade option, like, -Highlight-Midtones low- Midtones high- Shadow. Even better if it has all above, then in the middle "Midtones". Most of the  B&W editing happening, around mid-tones.  A good b&w image creation is more difficult then a color photograph. In b&w, you don't  have the easy chance to attract average people  with colors, mostly, vibrant colors. To get an effective b&w image, the good grey scale and sharpness is not  enough. Simply, turning a color to b&w  is  never enough, and never  work. But, when you edit a color image to b&w successfully, it is a joy, to look at it.

That much, for  my "brilliant English" vocabulary.

Bela, thanks very much.  Your photographs and those of another PN friend are two sources of B&W that I very much admire.  I admit I rely on the software conversion programs, but I will give the more traditional methods a try.  It's always fun to experiment and learn new things.

This is just beautiful!

Beautiful. Those sand patterns are a treasure trove. You made the right choice with focal length here to emphasize the foreground and still draw the viewer into the picture, makes me wish I had a wide angle.

Khidra and Bengt, I appreciate your visits.  This is one of my favorite beaches, and I can spend hours just in a 100-meter stretch.

Lovely, professional quality image. The composition, tonality, and DOF, all first rate. Regards.

very appealing foreground

Emmanuel and Tony, thanks for your comments.

Stephen; we are kindred spirits: some of the best times I`ve had were spent in solitude on beaches like this, camera fastened to my tripod slung over my shoulder, being intensely there...

Bengt, those are great experiences, for sure.