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David Cowling
03-10-2016, 03:06 PM
I was on the seashore photographing an Oyster Catcher when I became aware of an interesting cloud formation building. Fortunately I had the small camera that I use for landscapes in my pocket and set about composing an image with the clouds being quite dominant. I used the rope as a lead in and the small object in the distance as a focal point - the image doesn't work as well without it - while trying to make a nice arrangement of the boats. The image was taken from a worms eye view.

Panasonic Lumix LX100. Lens at 24mm. Hand Held.

1/400 @ f 8. ISO 200.

Raw file developed in Camera RAW and converted to monochrome in CS 6

Adhika Lie
03-10-2016, 05:16 PM
Very nicely done, David! The B&W works really well here and I love the rope leading into the picture. I am not familiar with the camera crop factor, is that a 1.5?

Glennie Passier
03-10-2016, 10:30 PM
This is beautiful David! Very atmospheric, moody. Unique and wonderful POV.(not for a worm I suppose!) The lead in line works well. It would have been nice if all of it could have been rope. I'm not much of a photographer, or critiquer, but for what it's worth, I might imagine that I would open the shadows under the main boat just a tiny bit and darken down just a tiny bit, the other two smaller white boats. You mentioned that small object in the distance...now I can't take my eyes off it.

Diane Miller
03-11-2016, 05:33 PM
Very nice -- good placement of the objects. That could have been tricky but you found a great spot!

Nice focus from the FG back -- that's an advantage of a small-format micro-4/3 sensor.

David Cowling
03-12-2016, 02:15 AM
Thank you Adhika, Glennie and Diane. As Diane has
already mentioned, the camera has a micro four third sensor which gives it a 2x crop factor which provides

the large dof you need in landscape photography. It also has an excellent fast f1.7 Leica lens. It is also small enough to fit in my jacket pocket.

Jonathan Ashton
03-12-2016, 08:24 AM
As soon as I saw it I thought wow sombody knows something about composition!. A lovely shot I like everything including the B&W presentation.

David Cowling
03-12-2016, 04:52 PM
Thanks Jonathan. It was the wonderful cloud formation which inspired me to take this image, without that it would never have happened.

David Stephens
03-15-2016, 11:05 AM
I love it for all the reasons given, but the small, unidentifiable object in the center of the images bugs me. I noticed it before I read your comment. I think it detracts, rather than adds.

David Cowling
03-15-2016, 11:44 AM
I love it for all the reasons given, but the small, unidentifiable object in the center of the images bugs me. I noticed it before I read your comment. I think it detracts, rather than adds.
David. Thanks for your comments. I have been looking at it for a few days now and I have come to the same conclusion. It bugs me too. Seemed like a good idea when I was framing up the shot. I am a bit of a purist when it comes to landscapes and don't really like taking things out, I like to try and work around them when composing but there was no way of eliminating it and getting the same composition. I blame the person who put it there!

David Stephens
03-16-2016, 09:05 AM
David. Thanks for your comments. I have been looking at it for a few days now and I have come to the same conclusion. It bugs me too. Seemed like a good idea when I was framing up the shot. I am a bit of a purist when it comes to landscapes and don't really like taking things out, I like to try and work around them when composing but there was no way of eliminating it and getting the same composition. I blame the person who put it there!

100% agreed on philosophy; however, if I were selling a print or putting it on my wall, I'd take it out. Posting here, if I took it out, I'd disclose it. Anyway, my eye was indeed drawn to it, but it became annoying when I couldn't figure out what it was and why it was sitting there, right at the focal point. ;-)

Andrew McLachlan
03-17-2016, 07:47 PM
Hi David, I am glad the little black object dead center bugs you becasue my only suggestion is to evict it. Otherwise the composition is fantastic!!! And the B&W conversion suits the image very well. Compact point and shoot cameras can be a ton of fun for quick grab shots like this...I often carry around a Sony RX100 for the same reasons :)

Don Railton
03-17-2016, 11:24 PM
Hi David..

Bit late here, but I Love the rope lead, the gravel detail, I like the boat but wish it was and old wooden clinker built instead of plastic, (being picky..) dont like the dot, and the clouds I prefer not to be smeared (being grumpy now).. But over all for me a good image showing a good eye and lots of thought.

DON

David Cowling
03-19-2016, 09:20 AM
Thanks for all the feedback. Here is a repost with the object removed.160608

Diane Miller
03-19-2016, 09:42 AM
I'm not so sure -- without the mystery object anchoring the space between the boats, I have a feeling I'd want to shoot from a little higher (just a little) and more to the right, to reduce the empty space a little.

Glennie Passier
03-20-2016, 01:28 AM
I am really torn with this now. When the object was there, it drew my eye. Now that it's not there I feel you have two images; the larger boat and the two smaller boats. Crazy, I know. Either way, this is a very beautiful image!

Don Railton
03-22-2016, 06:45 PM
I think it works much better without the block.. My eye flows through the image easier..

Morkel Erasmus
03-22-2016, 10:32 PM
Late to this one, David, but love the composition, tonal range and mood here - one of the best you've posted here by a country mile :5 :cheers:
I too didn't like the black object in the distance and prefer the version without it.