Sunset at Fort De Soto

[Michael Pancier]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3649/3391757282_fc93157c08_o.jpg

shot at the Gulf Pier last Friday evening after a killer afternoon of shore bird photo ops at North Beach.

40d+17-85 EFS USM IS
f/16
HDR

I layered the HDR image over the original (middle exposure) and erased the foreground (the HDR messed up the short birds with ghosting).

[Dave Mills]

Hi Michael...Nice elements here. Birds give you some foreground interest with the pier taking you out to the horizon. Nice placement of sun which is giving off a pleasing, soft glow with an interesting sky. I was debating taking a bit off the top but could go either way. Nicely composed...

[Grady Weed]

Of all the places in Florida outside of the Everglades National Park, Fort DeSoto is my favorite park just for this reason. I can see the reasoning to take a bit off of the top. If it were more colorful it would have more appeal. But it is nice as is. I love the smell of salt water and the sound of crashing waves and the gulls screeching. I can almost hear them.

[Michael Pancier]

Of all the places in Florida outside of the Everglades National Park, Fort DeSoto is my favorite park just for this reason. I can see the reasoning to take a bit off of the top. If it were more colorful it would have more appeal. But it is nice as is. I love the smell of salt water and the sound of crashing waves and the gulls screeching. I can almost hear them.

Think about it, where else can you have amazing sunrise and sunset shots other than perhaps Key West .....:D

birds were out in number this past weekend too. You can spend entire days out there and then simply veg at the beach too....

one of my favorite places in the entire state as well....

[Robert Amoruso]

Michael,

I have been layering the HDR with one exposure and then masking to correct for tonality in the HDR I am not happy with but ghosting a good idea too.

Looks very natural with good placement of the pier and sun. Gulls a nice addition to the FG.

[David Thomasson]

Beautiful color, exposure, and composition. Unless the image is used in some context where journalistic accuracy matters, I would take the light poles out. Also that little blip on the horizon just left of the sun. Cleans up the lines, I think.

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/3779/pier.jpg

[Don Saunders]

Very nice shot. The sky has good interest and adds to the composition.
You said you used HDR. I'm curious - What did a single image look like? Would a soft edge Grad ND filter give you the exposure results you want and keep the birds sharp?

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Michael,
I'm with the off the top crowd........strengthens the impact of the birds and the pier.

[John Ippolito]

Very nice compositional elements and colors. Scrolling down, I also like the top cropped. Either way, it's pleasing to look at!