River Dee

[Jonathan Ashton]

Canon 7D Canon 100-400L IS hand held ISO 800 + 0.66, 1/500 f6.3
An unusual shot for me, probably not the ideal lens to have with me but I had just had my lens repaired so this was the first day out, I noticed the light on the river which is just a couple of minutes walk from my house. I after optimising in ACR I applied curves in CS6 and just selected medium contrast, I tried various HDR but I am new to this game. The River Dee is North West England where thee is a small peninsula - that is Wirral where I live so we are in Wirral looking over more or less the mouth of the estuary toward the Irish Sea, North Wales is just to the left.
Your comments would be most welcome - don't worry I will not be offended if you don't like it.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Jonathan - the gorgeous light makes the shot. I like the way the winding channel leads the viewer through the image and to the boats stranded at low tide. Only thing that bothers me is the closest green channel marker as it draws the eye.

TFS,
Rachel

[David Stephens]

The light is indeed fantastic, but the low tide stranded boats tells an additional story. I agree with the decision to de-emphasize the uninteresting sky. I suppose that the red and green spots throughout are channel markers. There's a green one in the FG catching more than its share of direct sunlight, so I might de-emphasize it a bit.

Wonderful shot.

[Don Railton]

Hi Jonathan

Agreed, the light is beautiful...! Looks like a great place to wander around with a bird lens as well. If I were to suggest any changes it would be to slice a little of the bottom to have the river intersect (or close to ) the Lower LH corner, but its to taste really.. Must admit I did not notice the channel markers straight up...

DON

[Diane Miller]

Just gorgeous -- the light and the scene!! Agree about the markers -- the rest is perfect for me. Could do with a little off the bottom but no big deal. Looks like the tide goes out for MILES!

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Jonathan, looked at this a few times and Don confirmed my thoughts, crop off about an inch (oops 25mm to be correct) off the foot so the diagonal finishes at the point of the LH corner. In doing so it also loses that red bit in the RH corner. Like the warmth and the way the river zig zags through the image. The buoys leading you through the channel I feel aren't an issue, if it hadn't been mentioned it I doubt I would have picked it up, so a very minor point IMHO. If you had a support then I would have preferred a greater DOF.

TFS
Steve

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Jonathan,

great light you have in this image. Agree with Rachel and the green thingy. Jumped right away on me. Love the lines in the image. The sky, well I am not bothered by it at all. My first thought was, wow the fog comes in too

You got already good suggestions above. This one I would not do HDR.
Btw, I shot my most Landscape with the 70-200mm and even quite a few with the 300mm f/2.8. The 100-400mm is fine too, IMHO
It certainly did here a great job

Have a great eve

Ciao
Anette

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Jonathan, lovely light in this one...great suggestions already and I do agree with toning down the brighter buoys and crop a little off the bottom. I may also be tempted to lose about half of the sky. Love the way the river is winding through the scene. Nice one!

[Cheryl Slechta]

Jonathan, the light is lovely and I love the curving lines. I agree on a crop from the bottom. It's neat to see all the birds so tightly packed together.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thank you very much everyone for your feedback much appreciated.