Since all you friends from the US just celebrated your Thanksgiving, it reminded me of a shot I captured from our Canadian Thanksgiving about 6 weeks ago. I got extremely lucky and managed to snap a perfectly placed sunrise over downtown Calgary, during peak fall colour, with some sweet atmosphere to top it off.
The hardest part of getting the shot was blocking the massive lens flares while shooting at 100mm. I had to hold my finger out as far as my arm could reach to avoid the bokeh spilling into the downtown area.
What a great blend of landscape and city in this one. I can imagine it's a very hard shot to take with the sun like that, but the end result sure looks good.
Hey guys/gals, could I get some more feedback and comments for improving this shot? Whoever I have shown it to in person absolutely loves it, but it has done so awful among photographers and I'm not sure why. Bad exposure blend? Maybe I should post in the city forum? Uninteresting to non-locals? Too much orange? I might redo it with less orange to appeal to more people, but I feel the finished product is extremely accurate to what I originally captured.
Thanks for suggestions. This shot has me really confused.
Thanks a bunch Steve and AMaji. I'll make sure to post future city/landscape stuff in the city forum.
And thanks Gary. This was taken along the top of the same hill that COP is on, but farther east. I can't remember the exact neighbourhood name though. I was just driving around randomly looking for an open spot
Justin Grimm wrote:
Hey guys/gals, could I get some more feedback and comments for improving this shot? Whoever I have shown it to in person absolutely loves it, but it has done so awful among photographers and I'm not sure why. Bad exposure blend? Maybe I should post in the city forum? Uninteresting to non-locals? Too much orange? I might redo it with less orange to appeal to more people, but I feel the finished product is extremely accurate to what I originally captured.
Thanks for suggestions. This shot has me really confused.
Just because it doesn't do well on a site like 500px or something doesn't mean it's no good man! It's a great shot Handled the sun excellently. Love the view you got there too, I don't think I've seen it before. Will have to check it out when I move over there. I think it will definitely appeal more to locals though. City shots are kind of like that. Whenever I see a shot of another city I'm kind of "meh" about it. I do like the mixture of nature and the city here though. It's part of what I love about Calgary. You can be near downtown and look out to the horizon to rolling green hills.
I think it is a great shot with very nice layering and color, but I would not have put the sun right in the middle of the frame.If the location allowed it I would have used a wider focal length and moved the frame to the right. That being said, I still think it is a great shot.
Scott Kroeker wrote:
I'd try and sell this to the city of Calgary or some entitle that deals with promotion Calgary. Great shot!
Thanks Scott. I wouldn't even know where to start to try and sell it to the city haha.
matthewh133 wrote:
Just because it doesn't do well on a site like 500px or something doesn't mean it's no good man! It's a great shot Handled the sun excellently. Love the view you got there too, I don't think I've seen it before. Will have to check it out when I move over there. I think it will definitely appeal more to locals though. City shots are kind of like that. Whenever I see a shot of another city I'm kind of "meh" about it. I do like the mixture of nature and the city here though. It's part of what I love about Calgary. You can be near downtown and look out to the horizon to rolling green hills....Show more →
Its not even the lack of it doing well, it's the lack of comments and suggestions. I'd rather get input for how to improve from one experienced photographer, then get 10 pats on the back. That's really what a forum should be about. Constantly striving for improvement and helping others when you can. Thanks for the comment though bud! We'll have to shoot when you get over here. I've kinda been thinking of moving away from edmonton and back to my real home in Calgary We'll see
Justin, there is nothing to improve on here.... nothing that I see wrong. It's a really sweet shot that works the light so well. Why is it that you think this shot needs to get suggestions? When a shot is really well done, I don't know what can be done to improve upon it. I think you have a special shot here, and one that could be used for advertising, etc..
Justin Grimm wrote:
Thanks Scott. I wouldn't even know where to start to try and sell it to the city haha.
Its not even the lack of it doing well, it's the lack of comments and suggestions. I'd rather get input for how to improve from one experienced photographer, then get 10 pats on the back. That's really what a forum should be about. Constantly striving for improvement and helping others when you can. Thanks for the comment though bud! We'll have to shoot when you get over here. I've kinda been thinking of moving away from edmonton and back to my real home in Calgary We'll see...Show more →
Totally agree with you. We don't grow if we get content. Constructive criticism is always the best form of feedback in my eyes. I don't think you need to make it less orange. Looks pretty perfect to me. As I said, maybe it's just a lack of connecting with the audience due to it being a city where most of the world don't have a connection with.
For sure we do have to do some shooting when I get over there. I'll be heading there after Iceland, arriving in mid-September, doing a little shooting in the rockies then going on a road trip down into the US for 6 weeks of autumn shooting After that I'll settle down in Banff most likely.
What's keeping you over in Edmonton? Work better over there or something? I always thought Calgary was the more appealing option, to my eyes anyway.
JimFox wrote:
Justin, there is nothing to improve on here.... nothing that I see wrong. It's a really sweet shot that works the light so well. Why is it that you think this shot needs to get suggestions? When a shot is really well done, I don't know what can be done to improve upon it. I think you have a special shot here, and one that could be used for advertising, etc..
Jim
I have to agree with Jim here, Justin. There really is nothing you can to "improve" this image. It's a well compositioned and executed image. You did a great job with the blending as well.
Handled the sun excellently. Love the view you got there too, I don't think I've seen it before. Will have to check it out when I move over there. I think it will definitely appeal more to locals though. City shots are kind of like that. Whenever I see a shot of another city I'm kind of "meh" about it. I do like the mixture of nature and the city here though. It's part of what I love about Calgary. You can be near downtown and look out to the horizon to rolling green hills.