Jonesport Puffin Sunrise

[Grady Weed]

This is from Jonesport Maine just before we left port to go to Machias Seal Island to photograph the Puffins, Murres and Razorblls. You must go. Picture should self explanatory for weather and thought behind the photo. If you can go, you must go soon. They are thinking of closing it down to tourist due to various reasons.

Canon EOS 5D, Shooting Date/Time 7/23/2007 04:55:56, Tv(Shutter Speed) 1Sec. Av(Aperture Value) F22, Evaluative metering, Exposure Compensation +1/3, ISO 100, Lens EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM, Focal Length 28.0 mm, tripod with cable release. I shoot for 5 minutes and kept 3 out of about 50. It is worth the trip!

[Robert Amoruso]

Nice sunrise Grady. I like how the boats are pointing towards the sunrise - great and innovative use of leading lines. The clouds are also pointing at the sunrise - again leading lines. Nicely composed.

Too bad to hear about the puffin trips. I was thinking about one this year but just can't manage the time to do it. I am from New England so appreciate this type of image greatly. Certainly would be a good place to try a High Dynamic Range Image.


EDITED: A comment below by Phil Colla caused me to re-read my original comment above. I want Grady to know that I was not telling him HDR would have been better here, just that this would be a cool location at sunrise to try and HDR image. That said, moving water, boats and clouds can render an HDR image unsuccessful as the multiple bracketed images would have differences between them. As presented by Grady above, this type of scene is exactly how I would render it. Having been to similar places in Maine and seen similar types of scenes, this is an accurate rendering. As with any image, the emotional impact that it has on the viewer is most important and for me this image has a lot of impact. Nice work.

[Alfred Forns]

When I saw this iamge I was thinking HDR also !!! As presented would try having a hint of dertail on the closer boats (that are dark) Fine image Difficult to take my eye away from !!!

[Grady Weed]

Thanks. Coming from you guy's, it's a great compliment.

[Bret Edge]

Beautiful sky and a very well composed image. I would work on bringing out more detail in the bottom third. It's just a little dark as presented. Doing so will really make this photo come alive, Grady.

[Phil Colla]

No need for HDR **in my opinion**, not all areas of the image need to show detail and it is fine if some shadows go black. As it is the sky is the point of the interest and the boats are visual anchors, establishing the locale. We immediately recognize them in silhouette and do not need detail to visually incorporate them into the image. Bringing out detail in the boats -- either through HDR or pulling up shadows -- will be distracting. I mean, who really cares about reading the names on the boats with a sky like that? Sorry, I guess I am a contrarian on this one.

Machias Seal Island is a cool place, too bad it may be shut down.

[Robert Amoruso]

No need for HDR **in my opinion**, not all areas of the image need to show detail and it is fine if some shadows go black. As it is the sky is the point of the interest and the boats are visual anchors, establishing the locale. We immediately recognize them in silhouette and do not need detail to visually incorporate them into the image. Bringing out detail in the boats -- either through HDR or pulling up shadows -- will be distracting. I mean, who really cares about reading the names on the boats with a sky like that? Sorry, I guess I am a contrarian on this one.

Machias Seal Island is a cool place, too bad it may be shut down.

I agree Phil, and I think the image is great as presented. I was not commenting that an HDR affect would be better, just different and something worth trying at least for me as I am getting more and more into using it. As I mentioned, being from up there, I really appreciate this type of scene and would not "open" up the shadows in this case.

I agree with your analysis and should have been clearer in my critique. Thanks.

[Phil Colla]

Hi Robert and everyone,

I should have been a little more diplomatic in my earlier comment above, my apologies! HDR is a powerful tool and is getting a lot of play these days, so many images benefit from it, it makes a lot of images possible that never were before. Robert, your comment mentioning it is a good one and my later comment may have come off as a slam on yours-- not what I meant at all, very sorry about that. I just wanted to point out my impression that it looks good with the deep shadows that leave the details in the lower area to the imagination.

Now I've burnt bandwidth on critiquing my own critique and stand at risk of highjacking Grady's thread! Cheers, Phil

[Grady Weed]

Well I must confess, I did not know what HDR was. So I went to Wkipedia and read up on it. It sounds pretty cool. Have no fear Phil, I will not implode if you bring up suggestions for improvement. Off off and away.....