REPOST:
ORIGINAL:
This reminded me of a walrus mustache, hence the title. Just one of those little scenes from a beach.
Any comments welcome. This is from the archives, reprocessed for more drama.
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Single frame, hand held, a7r, 30mm, 1/90s, f/16, ISO 400.
bonnie, i love the color tones, contrast, and the side light is striking!
Really very nice Bonnie. I love the dramatic effect of the lighting and the composition. Wonderfully done.
oh hello, where did this sneak in from! I do quite like this. Could be a mountain, could be a rock on the beach. I love the sense of mystery that you have created by not including the whole rock. Makes you wonder what is out right. I thought originally that it made the shot unbalanced but I like it’s non classical approach.
My one cc would be that the dark section at the top draws the eye. With the directional light you have, I would think that this should be a similar luminosity to the rest of the sand. Unless there is a shadow being cast from out of shot. I would cosnider lightening this section.
Great work.
Eugene
Wow, Bonnie. What an image. I am also immediately drawn to the mustache although I do not immediately think of it as a mustache. I also like that there is warm/cool color contrast here. But the placement of the cool and warm makes the flow when looking at the image a bit awkward for me. When playing with it, I find that I really like it flipped horizontally.
Bonnie, very well seen and done. I would be inclined to burn the bright area of rock toward the top, but otherwise, it looks quite good to my eye.
I love finding and photographing fractal patterns in nature, and you have found a gorgeous fractal pattern in the sand here. The light here is amazing, and I like your high contrast processing of the scene, it adds to the graphic nature of the image. This image is beautifully processed, and does the light full justice.
I’m curious about the color of the sand. It almost looks like it has processed in B&W and masked in with the gold rock. Was that steel grey the actual color of the sand? I don’t really care if it is B&W or color, the image works very well as presented. But that color sand is very unusual looking to me.
Excellent light and texture of the sand in this scene…but I guess I’m an outlier here on the composition. While the texture of the sand is very attractive, the brightness of the rock, the color in an otherwise monochromatic image, and it’s “flow” leads me out of the frame in the upper right corner. Maybe I’m too much a seeker of balance in my images, but the tension created by the prominence of color and brightness on the rock compete heavily with what otherwise would be beautiful sand texture.
When I first saw this I thought it was a drone image looking straight down. After looking at your technical data I now understand this is a close up shot of a rock in the sand on the beach however it makes a really cool abstract. Could be an aerial shot from Iceland! As Ed mentioned, not sure if that’s the actual color of the sand but I love it! Killer light and well composed.
@marian, @linda_mellor, @Eugene_Theron, @Adhika_Lie, @Harley_Goldman, @Ed_McGuirk, @Jim_McGovern, and @David_Haynes - thanks for looking and commenting.
That is a good suggestion. I think this posts a bit darker than it appears in PS, but that corner could be lightened.
Well, it was originally in the orientation that you suggested. I flipped it because I must have liked it in that orientation. But I don’t remember exactly why. Maybe because I didn’t want the lightest lines to point out of the frame.
I actually did burn that down some. It probably needs more, as it is the brightest part of the rock and has that sharp shadow that intersects the frame. Good suggestion.
No, that is not the original color of the sand. Didn’t do any b&w work, but I did tone the sand to be more blue, to contrast with the gold rock. We do have that color sand up here on the north coast of California, so I felt it didn’t look odd, even though the “true” color was more brownish.
Hmmm, that’s probably what I was trying to avoid by flipping it in the first place. I think Harley’s suggestion about bringing down the top of the rock may help the feeling of being led out of the frame in the URC.
Yes it has a habit of doing that 
my only concern would be if the images view lighter in PS then the light part of the image may be too light. Balancing act. I look forward to seeing your edit and what you decide to do with it 
Added the edited version. I dialed back the golden glow of the rock, so it doesn’t compete so much with the sand details. Also darkened the top of the rock, so it’s not so prominent in the URC. Thanks to all for the suggestions.
Now I really like this one better…way better. Your vision, not mine, but this is a major move in the right direction to my eye. Thanks for the repost! Nicely done.
Such a lovely semi-abstract Bonnie. For my tastes, I prefer the original post over the repost. The gold could be slightly burned but the repost went too far IMHO. I also like the idea of it being displayed horizontally, with the gold on the top. In my experience customers greatly prefer horizontal panos to vertical ones. An exquisite capture!
@Bill_Chambers, glad you liked it - thanks! As far as customers’ preferences - since I have zero customers, not a worry for me.
i prefer the original - i really miss the golden glow! bringing out the sand details more worked well though. maybe those two little “fingers” of light above them could be toned down to allow a smoother transition from the sand to the rock…?
