Believe it or not this is Lake Superior - looking back to Miner’s beach.
We came here for a little waterfall right on the beach, but it had such low flow that I wondered who left the hose on. Not feeling inspired and since the light was basically terrible, I wandered over here to these incredible rocks. There were clouds coming and going, but I think the dappled sunlight lifts this image with positive energy somehow. The waves were pretty low and so is the water level in the lake overall, so I could get far enough away from the very edge to make this kind of sweeping composition. Again, it was all about the rock.
Specific Feedback Requested
Does it work? Should I crop out more sky? I played with it and couldn’t decide. I like how the deeper shadows give way to the bright blues. Should I add a palm tree?? lol
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Lumix G9
Lumix G Vario 12-35mm f/2.8 @ 13mm (26mm equiv.)
f/11 | 1/80 sec | ISO 200
handheld while in a crouch - polarizer
Lr processed for the crop and lens correction, white & black points, texture, clarity and color management. Some brush work to even out the light coming through the trees overhead. Ps to remove a stray cloud and some dust spots from my lens. Bah. I hate that.
In all seriousness I like the depth to your composition. Obviously better light would further help this image, but you did a great job of using what you had. I think I would just keep the sky as it is. The blue sky compliments the aqua green color in the water so it actually works for this scene.
Brian, I’ll see you a palm tree and raise two more palms and surfer.
I like the mix of the elements. Dominate rock, lazy water, sky, clouds, a distant spit of land.
If rock is the king, I think it could use a little more oomph, especially the lower 1/3. Plus a little bluer sky. I see you had a polarizer. Try pulling the blue luminance to the left a scuth.
You seem to have dust spots often. Are they the lens or the sensor? I had a camera with spots on the sensor, and it wasn’t very pleasant, especially when doing panoramas. A regular sequence, evenly spaced, across the sky. I finally cleaned the sensor.
It was really just this trip. Normally my lenses are super clean and the sensor gets cleaned on every start up so it’s ok. I don’t know why everything was dirty. I even did a cleaning session at the hotel.
But I’ll play with it. When you say oomph, do you mean more exposure? I have the texture/clarity cranked up pretty well in the fg.
Thanks Brian. The blues are pretty cool and something I didn’t expect with Superior. Michigan…the lake I mean…is blue, but I don’t think of Superior as blue.
This definitely does not look like how I envision the Great Lakes.
I think the composition is well balanced and works well as presented, I would not crop it. The rock shelf is a dominant and interesting feature. But this light is not doing the rocks any favors. This is an image that I think could present stronger in B&W than in color. B&W would allow you to play with the tones and texture in the rock, and you could get away with pushing contrast more than you could in color. I think the image works okay in color, but maybe has more potential in B&W. Just a thought…
Yes, more exposure. However, I think the light is not being your friend in this case. The directional light shadow mix on the upper surface in the foreground couldn’t be duplicated in the lower foreground without it looking contrived. Just an opinion of course.
