The photographer is looking for thoughtful feedback on the image as a whole, especially around the areas noted below.
Feedback Focus: Artistic / Expressive
About This Image
Traigh Rosamol, Harris, Scotland.
Seilebost beach on the Isle of Harris in Scotland regularly gets into the top ten beaches in the world. This beach is right next door to it and is my second favourite on the entire island. I confess I was a wee bit put off when the forecast predicted blue skies and wall to wall sunshine on this particular Autumn morning, but I resolutely plodded my way to the beach just before sunrise and this is the scene that greeted me. A vast completely unblemished wet sand beach at low tide with the first light of morning turning the ginger Deer Grass on Taransay bright orange, and that same warm light catching the contours of the Harris mountain peaks. I was completely alone, eyes on stalks, mouth wide open, standing motionless, it was stunning, my concerns of a bland blue sky evaporated with the sublime juxtaposition of the opposing warm and cold hues playing off each other with such simple harmony. As the tidal excursion withdrew, the newly wetted sand became a mirror, tinged flame orange by the reflection of Taransay island. I took the shot loving the added hint of tangled complexity to the simple colour palette. Hope you like it.
Feedback Requested
Feel free to comment. I am interested to hear your thoughts in respect of the plain blue sky. I usually avoid it but in this circumstance was it a good choice?
Technical Details
Fuji GFX50S, Fuji GF 32-64mm zoom, un-polarised due to the wide angle view, 0.9ND filter, f16, 2 seconds, ISO 100. I used the 65 x 24 crop format to compose.
Ian, this is simply stunning! The composition is superb and the color fabulous. I think the blue sky works very well with the blue of the sand and water. I would not change a thing.
Ian, you handeld this panorama masterfully in my opinion. I especially admire the cooler and warmer shades working together, as well as the gentle curves and triangles in your composition.
Lovely as presented - well seen and executed - colours shape and form are gorgeous.
Its very wide so it will be difficult to find a suitable wall that this image deserves.
Tiny tweak there is a bright area on the horizon on the extreme left you might want to darken.
Some other possibilities you might consider (feel free to ignore of course if its not the way you want to go)
The blues and oranges are gorgeous (no you don’t need clouds) so what if you move away from a very central composition and make a slightly more dynamic crop? You can use a leading line, darken the sand slightly to increase the tonal range.
You can loose some of the foreground in this example too if you like the horizon in the middle.
Lovely as presented - well seen and executed - colours shape and form are gorgeous.
Its very wide so it will be difficult to find a suitable wall that this image deserves.
Tiny tweak there is a bright area on the horizon on the extreme left you might want to darken.
Some other possibilities you might consider (feel free to ignore of course if its not the way you want to go)
The blues and oranges are gorgeous (no you don’t need clouds) so what if you move away from a very central composition and make a slightly more dynamic crop? You can use a leading line, darken the sand slightly to increase the tonal range.
You can loose some of the foreground in this example too if you like the horizon in the middle.
I too try to avoid those bluebird skies, but in this case I am glad you soldiered on because this works so well. I love the fact that you have that bit of warm light on the mountains; as well as that reflection; sandwiched between the two layers of cool blue tones of the beach and sky. Looks like a wall hanger to me!
Hi Ian,
This is spectacular. I can see it printed, a huge metal or acrylic face mount. The colors, the curves in the sand, the sense of a mirage where it is truly water. It’s all quite wonderful.
Hi Ian,
This is spectacular. I can see it printed, a huge metal or acrylic face mount. The colors, the curves in the sand, the sense of a mirage where it is truly water. It’s all quite wonderful.
Beautiful, Ian. The simplicity of the shot is part of what makes it work so well. I like the original and I also like Huw’s suggested crop so I don’t think you can go wrong.
This is incredible!!! The plain sky is absolutely what it needs, to make it a work of art. The shapes are so simple and elegant, and so perfectly arranged. I like the hint of mountains on the right and the way the line of the FG points to them. I wouldn’t change a thing!
Ian, the stretch of orange across the horizon and the kiss of its reflection are set off perfectly by all of the blue tones. The bluebird sky fits the rest of the scene perfectly.
Beautifully composed image Ian! I like the diagonal coming in from the lower left and the other diagonal of the shoreline. I personally like the plain blue sky, it has a hint of pink just above the distant hill and its color is complimentary with the orange in the hill and the blue water. I also think there is enough going on in the foreground that you don’t need any other elements (such as interesting clouds in the sky) to draw the eye to. Very well seen!
Ian: I’m really late to this but what a beautiful scene superbly rendered. I actually think clouds would be a distraction, especially if they were distinct and visually commanding. I like this very much as is and kudos to you for pressing on despite your misgivings. Many >=))>
I just had to stop by and admire this one again, and then I had an idea. It will be heresy to some, but this has such a wonderful clean graphic look, I had to clean up the one area I find distracting. (Also tagged the missing profile as sRGB, which it appears to be.)
Hi Diane
Yes I have to admit that does actually improve it still further. I very rarely make changes to things I could not physically remove myself had I been there, especially if it changes the original message, that is just a personal hang up. After all I cropped it to the format I wanted and that little spike of water on the wet beach could well have sunk under the sand a few moments later. It certainly seems to meet the self imposed “rules” I write for myself and I am very pleased with the improved look.
This image is about geometry and light to me. Spectacular as is. Do you live on the outer Hebrides? I think I remember you from Photo.net years ago. True?
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