The Park Point Collection - 56k Warning

kc0ltv · Jun 13, 2006

OK, after that rather pretentious name, let me introduce these: they were taken on the Park Point nature trail, on the gigantic sand bar of the same name (well, it's actually Minnesota Point, but everybody says "Park Point"). The first three or four miles of the sandbar are dominated by homes and condominiums. At the end of the main drag, there's the little Sky Harbor airport and the nature trail.

I took this picture last fall from Enger Tower, it might help explain the location:

Abandoned boathouse:

2: Across a field. Do you like the contrast between the two?

At the very end. To the right is Wisconsin.

Looking across Lake Superior to the beginning of Minnesota's North Shore:

Trail leading to the oldest standing structure in the city, a lighthouse from 1855:

I got a bit of a laugh out of this sign:

Entering the woods:

Another field picture. If you look closely, you can see the water fringing between the sky and field:

Through the forest:

And also through the forest:

Waves crashing along the shore of the world's largest freshwater lake:

I hope you guys like these. Please comment - I beg you to, good or bad!

LaFoto · Jun 14, 2006

Hey, welcome to ThePhotoForum, Kc0ltv (I will never be able to memorize that nick.... :roll: ).
This is a nice series.
For many, the photos will be too large to view as one, though.
Which may account for the considerable lack of replies, who knows.
It is helpful to reduce one's pics in size before loading them into the web - a friendly 600x400 pixels will help (or 800 in width at the most).

What I can see in a couple of your landscape photos is that the horizon line is either quite centred or still very much near the centre of the frame. That tends to make photos look a bit boring, so while in Photo (scroll-scroll ... numbering the photos helps the viewers a lot in passing comments, mind) erm... Photo 3 the contrast between the dune grass and the sky is nice, you could have moved the camera a bit more to the ground to express the vastness of the land and could have lost a bit more of the sky (this effect can still be achieved by some creative cropping).

I don't want to harp on the "Rule of Thirds", but in Photos like your Photos 3, 5 and 8 it would help make the pics more interesting.

Look at the last of the waves - apart from the fact that your horizon is tilted and the water will soon run out of your pic on the left

) - where the horizon line is meeting the upper third of the frame ... nicer to look at, isn't it?

In Photo 2 I don't quite understand where the light comes from, I was looking for holes in the roof structure through which it could fall into the old boathouse, but I can't see any. Maybe they are there, though, just hidden...?

I quite like the photo of the pier, a slight move of the camera down to lose some of the sky would have made it even better, but you have a nice curved line that leads the eye through the photo. I like that!

And I like your two pics of the trails in the wood!!!

kc0ltv · Jun 14, 2006

LaFoto said:
Hey, welcome to ThePhotoForum, Kc0ltv (I will never be able to memorize that nick.... :roll: ).
This is a nice series.
For many, the photos will be too large to view as one, though.
Which may account for the considerable lack of replies, who knows.
It is helpful to reduce one's pics in size before loading them into the web - a friendly 600x400 pixels will help (or 800 in width at the most).

What I can see in a couple of your landscape photos is that the horizon line is either quite centred or still very much near the centre of the frame. That tends to make photos look a bit boring, so while in Photo (scroll-scroll ... numbering the photos helps the viewers a lot in passing comments, mind) erm... Photo 3 the contrast between the dune grass and the sky is nice, you could have moved the camera a bit more to the ground to express the vastness of the land and could have lost a bit more of the sky (this effect can still be achieved by some creative cropping).

I don't want to harp on the "Rule of Thirds", but in Photos like your Photos 3, 5 and 8 it would help make the pics more interesting.

Look at the last of the waves - apart from the fact that your horizon is tilted and the water will soon run out of your pic on the left ) - where the horizon line is meeting the upper third of the frame ... nicer to look at, isn't it?

In Photo 2 I don't quite understand where the light comes from, I was looking for holes in the roof structure through which it could fall into the old boathouse, but I can't see any. Maybe they are there, though, just hidden...?

I quite like the photo of the pier, a slight move of the camera down to lose some of the sky would have made it even better, but you have a nice curved line that leads the eye through the photo. I like that!

And I like your two pics of the trails in the wood!!!

Thank you for your comments!

I understand what you mean. I'll try to make them smaller then. In fact, right now they seem a little bit too big for TinyPic

As for the old boathouse, the sources of the light are the windows and opening behind me.

I was told before the importance of a straight horizon, so I am quite scrupulous about it (though it is hard when you are hand-holding your camera!). Thank you for your mention of the "rule of thirds"...strangely enough I had heard of it, but didn't really know what it was.