Acadia NP, ME will always be near and dear to my heart and nothing symbolizes the heart of Acadia more to me than the rugged pink granite of the park. I have been to Acadia numerous times over the years and I think I have only seen this particular large piece of granite on a couple of occasions as it is usually covered by the smaller cobble stones. This was one of those mornings that it was revealed by the tides and the surrounding stones formed this heart shape. I decided to convert this to B&W as it just seemed more natural and fit the mood.
As always I appreciate those taking a moment to leave a thought.
Specific Feedback Requested
All C&C welcome.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Nikon D700, Nikon 17-35 @24mm, f22 @ 1.6 sec, ISO 200, CPL, cable release & tripod
This rock is indeed interesting. It almost has a personality of it’s own. The rock would make an interesting subject by itself some day. It also has some wonderful tonal qualities.
Beautiful composition. I like the overall tonality of the main “heart” rock in the foreground and the contrast of the round curvy foreground rocks with the sharp blocky rocks in the cliffside. The glow ing the sky is handled well.
The thing that stands out for me the most personally is the way the light falls on the cliffside is really beautiful.
I can really feel your connection with this place through the image, from both the metaphor of the heart shaped rock (pointing towards the cliffs), the soft glow of the water and sky (due to long exposure) and the spotlight effect on the cliff and forrest shouting: “look at this, it’s awesome!”.
If I had 1 minor nitpick, I think the texture on the foreground rocks is pushed a bit too much (drawing attention away from the tonalities of the rocks and starting to look almost like noise).
Cheers,
Mike
This works really well. Great rock and it leads nicely into the scene. The B&W tones are very well done and the image works for me. I would lose the bright spot to the upper right of the big rock, but otherwise, no nits here.
Funny how it looked like the back of a human figure buried on the stone beach to. But i can see the heart too.
I love the mood on the image, i think the focal length was very well chosen to this composition, the small distortion on the foreground really emphasized the beauty and shape of that main rock.
The B/W conversion worked really well, it made the light create those lovely changes of luminosity on the wet rock.
The only thing i would change (and its a very small thing) would be clone those two specs (buoys maybe) on the left of the horizon.
Great title Ed, indeed “Acadia Rocks” The heart rock creates a more unique and interesting view of this well known location. Your B&W processing looks excellent, the tonality and luminosity of the cobbles adds a lot of life to this scene. You gotta love wet rocks. Very well done Ed,
Really like this Ed. Great choice for the B&W conversion, because as I remember the lighting conditions were pretty underwhelming. I think the choice of the 24mm focal length was spot on as it makes the rock pretty dominant but doesn’t make otter cliffs look like tiny rocks in the distance. As to the texture in the rocks looking like noise as @Michael_Schertzberg noted, that’s just the way it is. That’as all the little textures and colors in the granite. It shows up in a similar shot of mine. Great work.
This is really a nice B&W of a place that holds fond memories for me. The boulder is a great subject to showcase this unique shoreline, and as you stated, the character of the Park. No nits from me.
