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robertbrown

Fortunately, they weren't hit by lightning--just got very wet. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a frame with lightning in it!

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Landscape

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Truly a fantastic shot in all respects. Kudo's --- too bad 7/7 is the best I can offer.
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Robert, what a great shot. I take it that you headed for cover after taking this. I would get rid of the border. It's just taking up valuable space. I would much prefer to see a larger image.
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It's a great shot - slightly sinister composition, and great lighting. My only nit is with the very awkward body position of the front paddler - the yellow paddle is very eye-catching, and they're holding it in such a graceless way. I like the dark red of the canoe against the dark green grey of the water. Best, Jeremy
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'a graceless way'... witness Jeremy, the ballerina of the canoe world :-) That reminds me, Ray Mears is on tonight, almost forgot. Built his own canoe at the beginning of the series, a traditional one, with the help of a tribe, can't remember which, might have been in Canada. Sorry, thinking out loud.

 

Anyway, to the photo, pretty much what Jeremy said, the contrast of the red against the water, and I like the patterns of rain on the surface, as well as the fact that they appear to be in a lighter area, surrounded by darkness. Maybe the graceless way is a sign of panic? Or maybe the lighter area is a... halo of protection, something that represents their need not to panic, but that collapses the moment they loose it.

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David, John, Jeff, Jeremy, and Stephen--thanks for all of your comments. This was a fairly dramatic storm: unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any lightning captured.

 

A few notes about these particular canoeists. First of all, I'm not an expert on this matter, only having set paddle to water less than a dozen times, including once on this recent trip to Glacier: however, I can paddle with some rapidity in a straight line. That said, the people in the canoes (there was another one behind this one, with an adult and two small children) were complete idiots. This was not a fast approaching storm. Thunderstorms were promised in the forecast. They chose to stay out on the lake even with lightning cracking the sky only miles away. It would have been very easy to 1) paddle into their dock before the storm got close, or 2) pull ashore and wait out the storm. On top of what I've mentioned, these people were perhaps the worst conoeists I've ever seen (worse than my 10-year-old twins!): incapable of paddling in anything close to a straight line and extremely slow. They seemed remarkably unhurried through the whole ordeal. I was sure one of the canoes was going to get struck by lightning. As luck would have it, this was an "imperfect storm" and they docked, soaked but safe, about a minute before the lightning reached us.

 

I hope this might explain the "graceless" paddling technique portrayed here!

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Re: "Jeremy-the ballerina of the canoe world" Too funny!

 

Bob, this is a great shot. I love the little spots of color added by the canoeists (sp?). This is well composed and you captured the mood of a thunder storm beautifully.

 

Looking at this reminded me of the time we took my parents on a canoe trip down Juniper Run (a spring fed river). I'll never put the two of them in a canoe together again! I didn't know my mother was capable of such language until that day.

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Bob, that's one of your finest shots.

 

The compostition is just perfect, with really nothing to change... the right amount of clouds to compress the image with the incumbency of the storm, the right amount of light sky below it to give the impression of how dart it eventually was, and the canoe in the right place of the image. This in particular I find interesting as it suggests they're close to the end of the trip (pointing downward, not too much space left in front of them) but not really there yet (still some space to go if you pull a straight line in front of the bow).

 

Before reading the explanation I got the feeling that they were quite relaxed and cool (aka the dock is in front and the storm is still far) given the apparent lack of effort...

 

Paddling technique apart, and "Ballerina" Jeremy is the authority, I find the yellow of the paddle terrific as an anchor to the image and as the single source of colour in this dark place. That's a well captured moment in the -I understand hectic- paddling style of those people.

 

The only think I will change, though, is that yellowish border all around the shot... it almost detracts my attention from said paddle.

 

As for Laurie's comment, it looks like couples and floating craft often simply do not go together... in a few years of sailing I've heard (and sometime joined) remarkable matches of verbal abuse by otherwise relatively pleasent people...

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