Everglades Sunset #2

[Marina Scarr]

From ENP two weekends ago, here is one more that I shot from the swamp. I wanted to capture Venus too, but I wasn't up for kneeling in the swamp and it was 5 days away from being closer to the moon. :o

Canon 40D, 70-200L F4 IS @ 70mm, F4, 1/2 sec ISO 400, ND filter, tripod, full frame.

Would appreciate C & C, and thank you for looking,

Marina

[Bruce Murden]

Lovely composition and colors here! I like the small tree repeats the large one, and the large one and the crescent moon direct the eye to each other, and the triangle of these three elements makes the comp.

For my taste, there's a little too much black at the bottom, and dark blue at the top -- I would crop just a little of each out of the view. I would like to see a little more definition of the FG elements against the sky, but moving up or down to define them against the sky may lose the more important tree to moon alignment.

Keep up the good work. We look forward to seeing more!

[Julie Kenward]

Agree with Bruce on the crop. The moon feels too far down with all that sky above it. I'd crop just a touch from both ends to better balance the image. I also wonder if you tried doing a shadow/highlight adjustment at all to bring out the detail in the black areas at the bottom? You might give it a tweak and see what it creates!

Lovely colors and comp on this one. I wouldn't mind a slice more on the right side so the tree wasn't so close to the frame but it's such a minor thing. You did really well.

[Marina Scarr]

Thank you both so much for your ideas. I will definitely give your cropping and highlight suggestions a try. I appreciate your keen eyes and ideas.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Marina,
Very good advice given above..........and I will offer some additional food for thought out in the field next time..........as they mentioned........sweet colors and the crop will be the final touch.........you could also zoom to 200 or so...........from the 70mm you used........to concentrate on the 1 tree with the crescent........you saw something that grabbed you........so composing both (or even more) compositions.........will help yous look at landscapes more in depth......further expanding your experiences......and decide which you like best....when you get home. Overall.....still nicely composed.

[Robert Amoruso]

Roman captures my thoughts perfectly, the tighter in camera crop would have provided another stronger composition.

As for the original, cropping per the above comments will give you a stronger comp while retaining what is good about this image, the two trees balancing the image and the crescent moon.