Nokomis beach had been neatly scalloped by a storm two days ago, so I thought it would be neat to get a shot of that straight down from the air. Imagine my surprise when I discovered there were some sizable fish (snook, I reckon) just a few yards from the waterline. There must have been something there to attract them.
Feedback Requests
Any and all feedback welcome. I am new to drone photography, so I have much to learn.
Pieter: Of course you know I’m going to like a drone shot and this is very nice indeed. I like the bands of color especially. I also like that the sand looks like snow with no real way of knowing for sure its composition. >=))>
Haha, we did have quite a lot of snow, and ice in the Panhandle a week ago. But around these parts, the sand is part snow white crystalline or grey silica. On Siesta Beach the sand is really snow white and very fine. Nokomis has a mix of sands as you see here. Habitual beach walkers like me enjoy the darker sand because is is packed harder, whereas the white patches are soft and heavy going.
That is a very cool beach, Pieter. I didn’t notice the fish right away, until I read your comments. What caught my eye immediately were the swirly patterns of the washed up organic debris on the white sand. I could see a study of just those patterns on the beach.
For this shot, it feels rather 50/50 to me. The upper part has all those interesting textures and shapes, while the bottom half has the lovely aqua color and subtle fish. I was thinking that a 1:1 crop, taking off some of the water would make this less 50/50-ish and give is more rhythm. Also, maybe bringing up the shadows/darks some to give more life to the lovely vegetation up top would be nice. Here’s what I’m thinking:
Brought up the exposure in ACR with the parametric curve; in PS brought up darks with a levels curve and applied it only to the top, increased the contrast in the lights to give more detail to the sand area, then had to desaturate the greens because the edits made them too saturated (I think).
This is a great image. I’m liking the different layers.
I had a play and came up with pretty much the same as Bonnie; the trees and the swirly brown debris. I had a play with a gradient burn from the bottom edge. I liked the effect. My only other very small suggestion would be to clone in a n eye stopper at the little sand track leading out of the frame on the top left.
Bonnie, thank you so very much! I could kick myself, just the idea of presenting the image in thirds is so obvious (Rule of thirds, capiche?) and so brilliant!
Neither am I, Bonnie. It was more of an amused remark on the fact that you suggested crop (which I love!) turned out to be exactly according to conventional wisdom.
