Hi all! Longtime lurker exposing his vulnerable bits on the FM Forum for the first time. I think these would be perfect entries for this month's assignment but unfortunately they were taken in July, so as George Washington never said, "I cannot tell a lie." I'm posting both because I almost think of them as a diptych; one hour apart, I love the juxtaposition of the two blues and the striking differences in light. C & C is welcome, remembering I just got off the bus and there's some scary talent in this town!
As an aside, I was on vacation and had been out since 4am so my personal name for them is "As the Family Slept."
A little background: I'm 54, live in Birch Bay, WA, shoot product, food and portraits for a living, and my avatar is from a rock band PR pic shot in 1975 when I was 21.
Very very nice, thanks for sharing. The only very minor nit I would have is that in the second one, I personally think it might look better if the big rock wasn't quite so dead center and just a wee bit more to the right. Other than that, these are just lovely shots. I wish I had the fortitude to get up before first light to capture that early light!
These are both outstanding to my amateur eye. I particularly love the first one as in addition to being a beautiful photograph, it is also quite moody. I too definitely look forward to seeing more.
Wow! Thanks so much for the positive reenforcement! Jo is quite right, in #2 the sea-stacks on the left are a little close to the edge; being a product shooter my favorite head is a Bogen 410 with x, y, and z axis fine tuning and when I look at this shot my hand almost wants to reach down and tweak that pan knob to the left - so it _does_ succeed in taking me back. This shot was also much more impromptu; #1 I had contemplated for several minutes, but just before 7am I had essentially given up for the morning and was walking back up the beach thinking about this little espresso place I knew was open. Feeling good while thinking I had a couple nice ones in the can I sucked in a big lungful of that clean Pacific air and casually turned toward the rock, continuing toward my car but taking a few steps backward. When I saw the tide had uncovered those rocks and reflection were was right there! I think my eye was drifting toward those nice cloud scribbles. And yeah, we were there four mornings and I was out at first light between 4 and 4:30 every day. It's like a drug for me. When I know I'm at a special place and I'm going to shoot, my eyes fly open just before the alarm goes off and I start visualizing the places I may have scoped midday before or what the tide tables said, or just generally that high I think we all feel when we capture the magic.
Scott, I just realized that the #2 I posted is a reduced version with the curves adjustment layer turned on to lighten it for a 21inch wide print I made on my Epson 3800 - which is why it's a tad bright. Good eye! I'd love to post a little bigger in the future! I was afraid these would be too big for the forum and didn't want to get smacked for my first image post. In a little bigger version you can really see the birds on and around the top of Haystack.
Jeff,
As you have heard, these are spectacular shots. Those of us lucky enough (and skillful enough) to occassionally shoot this well usually post to other forums. It is not clear what critique I can offer. But it would be great to see more and have you share your thoughts on the images here. Most of us are amateurs. Some, like me, imagine all the glory, fantastic wealth, great artistic accomplishments, pure satisfaction without any hard work that surely comes with being a pro!
Welcome.
Scott G
I liked them both, although the first has an especially appealing serenity in color and composition.
If I might offer a sacrilegious suggestion, the birds are so small they can distract. (At most viewing distances, do they not look, at least at first glance, to perhaps be lint?) Have you considered cloning them out?
Hello New Zealand! I have an ex-pat Kiwi neighbor that makes his living rebuilding '57 Chevy show cars exclusively. Fun couple, their kids play with my kids (their two boys, my two girls). I've heard it said that there is no innate difference between men and women but I'll always remember when my youngest girl and their youngest boy were around 2 1/2 or 3 and I stumbled upon them quietly playing in my daughter's room; she lining up her shoes ever so neatly in the closet; he stockpiling a mound of rocks from the yard one bucketful at a time! I had to laugh.
Anyway, thanks for the kind words. First, being a commercial photog (and PS user since v1) I have no purist sentiments beyond the inner satisfaction of getting the exposure and framing spot-on in-camera. It's magic to get it right, but when it isn't I think it's silly (and a bit luddite) to forego the tools at hand to achieve your desired ends because of some self-punishing ideal, but that's just me. What's the old biblical saw, "...if thine (sic) eye offends thee, pluck it out," or some such thing. ;-) In this case however, since the birds look awesome in print (even though the non-flyers are still just specs - the ones in flight make you understand what they are) I have to chalk up the "lint look" to the shortcomings of electronic display and the jpeg and I agree (now that you've pointed it out danmit! ) that on screen they are a bit distracting. But I guess in what could be called a "purist" stance, yet I really don't mean this in any elitist way, my one great belief is that even in the wonderful age of digital, "the proof is still in the print." That said, hey, that's a pretty good idea for screen versions of any subject; if it's a nuisance why not nuke it for that application, I'd certainly do that for a print if necessary. Shhh, I don't want to offend anyone, but think about it, with all the hours he spent in the darkroom dodging and burning and codifying the Zone System, I think we can safely assume "Ansel would do it!"
I looked at your avatar on the left and thought "Man, he looks cool, I want to hang out with him sometime!". Then I read your post. I guess I'm just around that age myself. These awesome pictures are reminding me why I want to move to Oregon/California soon, Jeff. haha
Sorry, that was off-topic. The first photo is just about flawless to my (also)amateur eyes. I actually really think the birds add a dimension of nature/harmony to the rocks; as such, I personally enjoy them hanging out around there. But that's just my opinion, and I might be kind of silly.
The second one is also gorgeous and well captured. The polarity between the upper and lower parts of the atmosphere add a nice, clean gradient. To emphasize those beautiful crescent-shaped clouds on the right that I didn't even notice until you mentioned them in your latter post, I dare say you could even crop out a bit of the left to effectively move the big rock guy to the left part of the photo.
The difficult thing about the second one is that if you really want it to be "properly" laid out, you'd have to decide what to chop out. Normally, that's not a problem, but it's really not easy at all in this case.
Well, I'm out. These are breathtaking, though, Jeff. I'd be very proud if I were you.
DrIce926 wrote:
I looked at your avatar on the left and thought "Man, he looks cool, I want to hang out with him sometime!". Then I read your post. ...
AuntiPode wrote:
You've made me curious. How are the prints to be viewed?
Opp I missed this one. Well I guess you could drop by my studio in Birch Bay, WA, USA. Or I could cut you a 17X40 print on my 3800 if you wanna be my 'sugar mama.'
Dark Slider wrote:
1 = greatness
2 = cluttered. The slew of rocks in the foreground break up the great design. Also, big lump too centered.
Thanks for sharing. I might call you if I get a beach house someday for a print of #1. Really outstanding.
Thanks! I'm slowly working on getting my fine art ordering up on my site right now. I appreciate the sentiment!
As for the busyness of #2: Does this one work better? Shot within a few minutes, so the same light, but it's of course vertical, includes the entire reflection and has the 'pete-repeat' little rock at the bottom to help tighten up the composition.
And just for fun, I was walking down the beach the following morning about the same time when I spotted this groove in the sand (probably from a rental bike) and got this wild idea - which I did hand-held (doh, there's my shadow) with my Nikkor 10.5mm (a lens I regretted buying after the 2 week novelty of it wore off, but have since actually had a lot of fun with.
I think these would be perfect entries for this month's assignment but unfortunately they were taken in July, so as George Washington never said, "I cannot tell a lie." I'm posting both because I almost think of them as a diptych; one hour apart, I love the juxtaposition of the two blues and the striking differences in light. C & C is welcome, remembering I just got off the bus and there's some scary talent in this town! 
This shot was also much more impromptu; #1 I had contemplated for several minutes, but just before 7am I had essentially given up for the morning and was walking back up the beach thinking about this little espresso place I knew was open. Feeling good while thinking I had a couple nice ones in the can I sucked in a big lungful of that clean Pacific air and casually turned toward the rock, continuing toward my car but taking a few steps backward. When I saw the tide had uncovered those rocks and reflection were was right there! I think my eye was drifting toward those nice cloud scribbles. And yeah, we were there four mornings and I was out at first light between 4 and 4:30 every day. It's like a drug for me. When I know I'm at a special place and I'm going to shoot, my eyes fly open just before the alarm goes off and I start visualizing the places I may have scoped midday before or what the tide tables said, or just generally that high I think we all feel when we capture the magic. 
In a little bigger version you can really see the birds on and around the top of Haystack.
) that on screen they are a bit distracting. But I guess in what could be called a "purist" stance, yet I really don't mean this in any elitist way, my one great belief is that even in the wonderful age of digital, "the proof is still in the print." That said, hey, that's a pretty good idea for screen versions of any subject; if it's a nuisance why not nuke it for that application, I'd certainly do that for a print if necessary. Shhh, I don't want to offend anyone, but think about it, with all the hours he spent in the darkroom dodging and burning and codifying the Zone System, I think we can safely assume "Ansel would do it!" 
See...
