Tweedmouth Before Sunset

[nickjohnson]

Took these just as the sun set. Light was great – but the white balance in post was tricky – especially those shots with both sun and shade.

#1


#2


#3


#4


#5


#6


#7


#8


#9


#10

[chrisc]

4, 7 & 9 me likey a lot. Maybe this for #4

[clactonian]

If it was firewood you were after, you'd have done well Nick!
Nice series. I'm going to side with Chris here.
I think the picture in #2/#3 is the top 25% of the frame,a letterbox style crop just under the branch.
I also wonder in #7/#8, given that the walking man is the focal point, if you would have been better to have opened up the lens a touch just to render the shore behind slightly out of focus, thus holding our attention to the walker.
Just me trying to be wise after the event.

[nickjohnson]

@chris - thanks for the crop suggestion. That makes the composition simpler and more powerful.

@mike - your right about #2/#3 - sadly the crop you rightly suggest will not have enough resolution to be useful. Your observations about #7/#8 are absolutely valid, and show up my obsession with portraying such views with an illusion of front to back depth of field.

[clactonian]

I'm very quick with this bright ideas Nick but sadly my images show considerable lack of forethought.

[chrisc]

Several years back, Mike, I had a student who was far beyond the simple descriptors of "brilliant." A genius to be sure, but like others with such high intellect, there was an incredible lack of understanding things of an artistic nature. I am not saying this of you but to point out that sometimes it is a matter of putting things in the right perspective.

Tony, mathmatical, computer genius told me by the third day of lecture he could likely teach it back to the students better than I could. It was all the technicall data on the relationships between f/stops, depth of field, etc. Likely he could of, too. However he also told me once his eye went to the viewfinder, all that technical knowledge seemed to go off into outer space because he couldn't compose a scene to save his soul. He was right on that account. Technically, his images were spot on from the basics clear through the whole darkroom process. I am not sure I've ever seen nicer negatives from a student but compositionally, they were dry, day old toast.

I bought 20 of 4 different sizes of 1's and 0's from the hardware store. Half were painted black, half white. I made him incorporate these into my regular assignments becuase I knew he knew binary code in a way I'd never begin to understand. His work was instantly successful because he found the area where he could make relevance to the left brain side of himself. I suspect, perhpas even like myself, you are still looking for that point of relevance that will allow the two halves of your creative brain work together.

NIck has a lovely eye for landscape as do I when I want to work it, but I became so obsessed with getting the wildlife aspect of my work - to work, I began to lose confidence in that side of my work and it has suffered so, so much. I have a similar issue with doing portraiture, something at one time I was quite good at producing, now hesitantly unsure of myself. Find what makes your heart go pitter-pattr and let that dominate your work, not what accolades you might get on a facebook page, this site or the oohs and ahs from your mates. Do it for you.

[nickjohnson]

There is much to ponder there Chris - I will contribute later - but right now the mail man has just delivered my new ball head. Yes, another one! - more on that later as well.

[nickjohnson]

Right I'm back from all the excitement of un-boxing my new ball head.
There is so much I can identify with in Chris's last post. The very best bit was the last sentence - "Do it for yourself".
Statistically, my most numerous work is plants and flowers, followed by daytime landscapes. These are what I love doing. As far as competition work is concerned, both those genre are deeply unfashionable, here in the UK. Low light and night time landscapes have some appeal - but daytime work is regarded as picture postcards. Anything botanical has a tough time as well. So if I want to please other people (and why else would I show my work) I have to do other things. In the two and a half seasons I've been a member of my local Camera Club I've been lucky enough to win eighteen awards. Only two of those where daytime landscapes, both B&W. Only two where botanical, one being B&W. Now I could just stick to my main two genre and not bother with a club. The problem with that is getting bored talking to one's self!

It has long been apparent to me that real, genuine artistic skill, has been, is, and always will be in short supply. In the UK we have hundreds (maybe thousands) of photographers who feel that they are artists. IMHO they mistake proficiency in craft skills with being artistic. In my experience this is in stark contrast to folks who do painting and drawing as a hobby. Most (all ?) who I've talked to have no illusions about their own modest artistic attainments. I've long regarded myself as a talentless technician, and nothing I've experienced along the way has persuaded me to the contrary. I do think photography can be artistic - but the overwhelming majority is not. I'm swinging around to the idea that for a photograph to be artistic it needs to show the viewer something that they cannot or are unlikely to see in a painting or drawing. In contrast, taking one or more photographs, masking off sections and applying different treatments, then assembling it all into a single piece of work is or maybe a work of art - but IMHO is not a photograph in any way shape or form.

Right, coat, tin hat, door.....

[clactonian]

I think that is why I am a devotee of monochrome Nick. I know I struggle with the 'artistic' side of photography but do find it easier to create what are at least in my own mind more visually exciting shots in monochrome than the formulaic holiday and landscape shots in full colour.
I feel I'm making progress with my thinking in monochrome now and in visualising the finished image before I shoot. In colour? No.