Chuck_893 Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

C&C Only, please. Please do not post edits. Thanks.

I've posted very little here because my stuff's not that good, but I've always liked this, even though I am well aware that the kayaker got too far into the composition. The fact is, I didn't see him. I had a brand new Nikon P7000 in April, 2011, and was eager to try it out. I was waiting for the sun to get juuuusst so. The picture was made hand-held in "sunset" scene mode, which punches up the colors. I was watching the sun rather than the water and suddenly realized the kayaker was there. I should have made the shot 2 seconds earlier. :evil: In the original he was already skating into the trees, but until I acquired more skill plus PSE-11 I didn't have the ability to more-or-less seamlessly remove the branches that cut across the boat and really ruined it. Now I do so this morning I did.

I know the kayaker is too far in, but is there anything else I could have done/do to make it better? I really like it myself.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

I would never have thought about the "problem" if you hadn't brought it up, Chuck :)

I think it's a beautifully composed - and exposed - image that expresses serenity. Your lucky inclusion of the kayaker adds a sense of scale and solitude.

Nightski

Gorgeous colors Chuck. It is a beautiful scene. I wish you had been down on that dock, though, using the dock as a leading line out to the lake, and by the time you had gotten down there the kayaker may have been further out. That would have made it perfect. :-)

Photog8 Loc: Morriston, FL

I like all the elements...still lake, setting sun, and kayak. The wake of the kayak adds enough movement to be interesting. Very nice shot. ;-)

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

You nailed the exposure on the sunset and the composition of the shorelines. The reflection in the water is wonderful. I also like how you have used the trees as a frame for your image. I agree it would have been a better shot a few seconds earlier, but this one is still very good.
As for Nightski's dock I had to really search in order to find it at all. That would have been a whole different photo and would have told an entirely different story., beautiful, but not necessarily better in my opinion. This view from on high gives you a larger view of the lake and larger canvas for your reflection and sunset then being lower would have.

LLucas Loc: Upstate South Carolina, USA

I agree. This is very nice. The wake of the kayak is my favorite piece of this photo. The framing and saturation are very pleasant. The yellow part of the photo is a tad bit bright for me, but that's probably how mother nature intended it. I really love the blue/purple reflections on the rippled water.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

I think it's lovely and impactful. Good composition, beautiful colors - lots of V shapes going both ways. The V of the wake behind the kayak is a nice contrast to the larger V of the orange light going the other way. I like the high angle down at the water and kayaker (others don't, lots of knowledgeable folks seem to prefer the lowest possible angle to everything). The high angle preserves the full reflection of the orange clouds and the wake. You did a good job of removing whatever branches were blocking your kayaker. I like the sunset setting on my camera and will usually take a test shot or two just to see what it does and what settings the camera chose for it.

What could you do differently? Maybe add a bit more texture to the sunset clouds and the water in the pink/orange area with clarity or some similar tool. If you cropped this from a larger photo, maybe back out a bit and hold onto more of the two front trees in (I am the one that wants EVERYTHING in the frame so you may not want to listen to me), maybe raise the shadows just slightly along the bottom shoreline to get more of the branches to show up against the purple water. All of that would need to be experimental because it might make things worse instead of better. Also, it works compositionally just as well, I think, without the right hand half-tree.

Very nice. And I hope you'll post more. This one's very nice. Besides, you have seen lots of us struggling folks posting all kinds of stuff on here. Come take your periodic whippings alongside us other schmucks. :D

R.G. Loc: Scotland

I tried desaturating just a touch and it looks more real to my eye, but maybe you're comfortable with a hi-sat look......

Chuck_893 Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

Thanks so much, Linda. It was awfully lucky. I originally only intended the lake-scape with the sunset just to see what it would look like in "sunset" mode.
Thanks, Sandra. I was up on a relations' sun deck. That dock below belongs to a neighbor. I kinda like the high angle, though. If I'd been down on the lake it would have changed everything.
Thank you, Photog8!
Thanks, Mama! I had to go look for the dock as well (it belongs to a neighbor), but as I mentioned above I was up on a sundeck, and I think the higher angle works pretty well, too. I usually always look for natural "frames" in landscapes. It's how I was trained, in that it gives greater depth to the scene sometimes.
Thanks so much, LLucas!
Thanks, R.G. I admit I do like pretty saturated color. I went back to see if I had the SOOC original, and I still do, so here it is below, so you can see what I started with. It's pretty rich in color to begin with, probably a function of the "sunset" scene mode which is (I think) intended to "pop" a sunset more than a straight exposure.

If you download this SOOC version with the "good" one above and toggle between them, you can see what I did as opposed to what the camera did.

Chuck_893 Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

Thanks, Minnie! I just posted above the original Jpeg, SOOC. I did not crop (I try very hard to crop in the camera—it's the way I was trained). You can see from the original how the "sunset" mode seems to have "popped" the color, although I should have made a straight shot for comparison (project for another time!). You can also see in the original where the dangnab branches were across the boat since I didn't see the guy until he was where he was and I didn't think to scream, "Go Back! Go Back! I need you back there!" :lol:

The Exif says the picture was made using Auto exposure, Program AE, 1/84 sec, f/3.5, ISO 100. That's all the camera doing its thing.

I'm not sure what "clarity" is. I use Photoshop Elements. The picture was originally PP'd in PSE-4, but I just reworked it in PSE-11, which has a better "content aware" healing tool that I used to clone out the branches over the boat. I also cloned out a few other distractions that I had not originally worked on. I tend to think that the right-hand tree is needed for the frame, to "keep your eye in the picture." Maybe. :) I reposted it to my Flickr page, and then wondered what would happen if I posted it here.

I'm pleased with the reaction so far. No one has thrown me in the lake. Maybe I'll try again. :mrgreen:

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Good framing, subject mater, color saturation while unreal is wonderful like spice in food. The only problem it is not on my HDTV glowing and giving me a place to go mentally that is so soothing and relaxing. Kudos Chuck.

Chuck_893 Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

Thank you very much! :-)

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

I would remove the trees in front of the kayaker. Sky and reflection too bright and off-color for my taste. I would use an Expodisc to get the white balance correct. I would also make the kayaker a little lighter.

I wonder what the shot would look like with the trees cropped off from the right. The sun will probably be too close to the edge.

The interesting possibilities of the sky make up for less-than-compelling composition. The problem with pictures like this is that you do not have a lot of time to find the right place for an interesting composition. The kayaker is good but you see how little time you had to get him in the right position.

Chuck_893 Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

Thanks, ABC. I was playing with the "sunset" mode in the camera, which (so far as I know) is an intentional "whoopee" mode to zip up the color. It's not intended to be a perfectly accurate rendition (but in 20/20 hindsight I probably should'a made one normally to see the difference). I'm in love with Photoshop, too, but generally not to the extent that I'll totally change a picture. I spent too many years in film to do that much manipulation. I was trained to try to get it in camera. I find myself agreeing with many sometimes-intense critics of the Photoshop-the-bejeebers-out-of-it crowd. It begins to stop being photography. :)

I know I blew the composition because I didn't even see the kayaker at first. I was literally focused on the sunset, waiting for the "perfect" moment, and I was hand-holding so I was studying the shot on the screen when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I just had to squeeze it off before he was in an even worse position. I only yesterday figured out how to get the branches off the boat, but I rather like the jaggy shoreline look. I wouldn't remove the rest of the trees, nor would I crop the right-hand tree because I had already carefully considered the framing I wanted, with trees on left and right. What I hadn't considered was a serendipitous kayaker gliding into frame. :D :D :D

rhitmrb Loc: Portland, OR

Aside from the position of the kayaker, this seems to be pretty much spot on for what you were trying to do. I don't think the color is an issue - sunsets are over the top in nature too. One thing I'm wondering is if you could have gotten lower - that way the branch on the tree to the left might have been above the horizon instead of blending in with the trees on the opposite shore. That could be an effective compositional framing device.