While photographing rock pools in this area, I came across a large bed of kelp around rocks at the high tide mark, and then became captivated by the ebb and flow of kelp with wave action. After a while it just became mesmerising so I thought I would try and represent this in an image.
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Since joining NPN I have seen a lot of ICM imagery, and one in particular has remained ‘stuck’ in my memory (Lon’s Cypress-leaves of sky). It is not something that I have tried, but I enjoy capturing various coastal detail scenes (rather than larger scale coastal landscapes) where wave action creates some movement whilst parts of the scene remain static and in sharp focus. This is one of those, and I would really like to know what you think of this sort of thing as opposed to ICM work.
Oh, very cool! Capturing time & movement with longer exposures, and combining with static elements is quite interesting. I love the movement of the kelp. The only things I might suggest are to bring down the light rock and bring up the kelp in the URC, like this perhaps:
Thanks for doing that Bonnie. I like the result…much better. Must say that I thought the upload was a bit saturated compared with what I was seeing on my monitor and I almost took it back to reduce saturation. But then laziness kicked in . Cheers.
I agree on burning down the whitish rock next to the kelp. It definitely detracts from the subject being as bright as it is. Really interesting scene otherwise!
A great image, Phil. I like a lot your mix of static sharp parts and moving soft areas, and the golden colors are just great. Regarding the brighter rock, the brightness could be reduced to match the brightness of the water just right of the kelp making them to become more of a visual unit.
Fantastic motion combined with the static subject. Others have mentioned the brighter tones in the rock. I really don’t have any other improvements to recommend other than that diagonal line in the upper right corner created by the kelp. Great job experimenting Phil!
I agree with everyone else - very cool image. I like the beautiful gold/yellow kelp and the motion. Also agree about the rock being darken. Nicely seen, Phil.
All has already been said and I agree with toning down the rock but other than that, I love this as is. Very nice. I prefer this over the typical ICM image since you’ve got some nice static kelp with fluid movement of kelp. It shows a scene of something that we all know but it also shows tremendous movement. The composition is perfect. Well done.
Many thanks @Bonnie_Lampley , @Donna_Callais , @Dan_Kearl , @Eric_Bennett , @Alfredo_Mora , and @David_Haynes . I appreciate your comments, they help me a lot.
As soon as Bonnie first commented on the brightness of the rock I could see the problem very clearly, and I am at a loss to know why I hadn’t seen that before posting. Live and learn. This has been very helpful.
I have posted a reworked version (that rock!) along with a tidy-up of the URC as Alfredo recommended (thankyou Alfredo), and can see that both of the changes have made a huge difference. Thankyou all. Cheers.
. Cheers.