Discovered along the shores of Bandon Beach in southern Oregon on an evening of unimpressive skies, the contrasts of color and fortunes for this crab caught my eye while searching for compositions along the many sea stacks.
What technical feedback would you like if any? What artistic feedback would you like if any?
All feedback and critique is welcome. It’s not the sort of shot that gets a lot of traction on social media, so it’s doubtful I’ve ever shared this image though who knows how long I put into the edit just for self practice. Getting feedback is always a great way to grow.
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
Single frame, 5 sec exposure as the light was fading and I wanted some softness of the surf in the background as not to distract from the foreground. Edit in LR and PS.
Jon, this is an outstanding “beach scene”. The detail in the lower half are nicely eye catching. Then having the subtle lines left by the receding tide fade into nothingness does a fine job of adding context. The oof and nicely subtle bit of water near the top finishes off the scene well. It might be interesting to crop the water bit off the top, but I’m not convinced it would be an improvement.
Jon, I really like this image. The only thing I would alter if it was my image is to crop off some of the top. Great search and catch and job well done. Thanks for sharing.
What beautiful light. The fading of the color from warm to cool is perfect. I’m with the others on cropping the top a bit. That line of surf is such a different element in the frame (horizontal line vs. all the nice diagonals elsewhere), and having it near the edge of the frame feels odd. For me, I would know that this is a beach scene and that the crab shell was washed up, without seeing the surf line. Nonetheless, this is a lovely photo.
Jon: Really well seen and captured. I’m with the others on cropping from the top but would not crop away the surf comletely. For me the blank space above the surf line is what bothers me. I’ll offer my suggested crop for your consideration but this is a terrific image IMO from one of my favorite places on the planet. >=))>
A beautiful scene with superb lighting, Jon. I think the surf lines could go completely. I like the idea of the image fading into complete nothingness at the top.
Beautiful scene. My first thought was cropping out the wave at the top and just have this fade away in the top of the frame. Works better for me that way. Really good image. I am not sure social media is a good way to measure the quality of your work, if you know what I mean…
Thank you everyone for the feedback. It’s greatly appreciated, certainly food for thought as I go back through some of my other more abstract / negative-space sorts of compositions.
