Brad,
It's a nicely rendered photograph of the magnificent California coast. As a documentary shot, it succeeds. As art....? Well, I'm not one to venture much of an opinion because most of my photographs are documentary.
Nothing in particular is happening, i.e. in the sky, or the movement of the water, or the shapes of things. The light is good enough for our brains to realize how beautiful the scene is (while standing there smelling the sea breeze), but perhaps not dramatic enough to translate to a photograph.
Well....$.02 worth.
Charlie
I think Charlie's comments were very insightful. This image seems technically adequate, but doesn't really evoke an emotional response. I don't know what your intentions were when making it, but it does adequately portray a beautiful place under 'normal' conditions.
Thanks for the input. You are correct. The sky, the water and the shoreline were all quiet when this shot was made. And it certainly underscores the reason that we try to arrive at such places at sunrise or sunset.
The lesson in this for me (again) is that making a photograph requires more than taking a picture. I forgot to ask myself what I was trying to say with this image. I'll keep working on that
I would tend to agree with the others and you, Brad. That said, I still love the sense of a typically hazy day on the coast.
Plus, you have good reasons to return
One other thing from a technical standpoint, there is a lot of sky in this shot, but there is not much in the sky... usually that's where we will try to minimize the sky in the shot. Also, the tree branches on the right, becareful to include enough of anything poking into the edges of a shot that they feel a part of the shot, rather then an intruder poking it's head into the scene. With the amount of branches you have, you are right on the border between the two for me. I would rather you have included more of the tree, including the tree trunk if possible.
Just some thoughts for you! Oh, and isn't the Sonoma Coast cool? I was up there a couple of times earlier in the year, and I definately want to go back.
One thing that I noticed is that a sense of scale is missing, at least for me. Even though the trees somewhat help with this, I can't really figure out if they're small bush sized trees, or large trees. In the end, I'm leaning to saying the trees are large and this scene is quite big. But when I first looked at it, I thought it was just a small rock hill.
How does BW look, have you tried any conversions? I try to do that myself with any images I feel are good with regards to composition, yet lack emotion.
