Chesapeake Bay, Turners Creek, Md... C&C welcome

[Rick58]

View attachment 17472
Decided to head down to my trailer for a little fishing this morning and snapped this before settling in for a non-eventful morning of drowning worms.

 

[Rick58]

Ok, I just have to ask. 60 people viewed this, I asked for C&C, yet not a soul posted a comment. I'm not looking for attention, but it's been bugging me. Is it THAT bad?

 

[charlie76]

Ya I'm not sure about this one. The bright sunlight blowing out the main boat doesn't help. The composition could use some work IMO...the general scene isn't so interesting. The second boat is awkwardly sticking out of the rear of the first. The tiny ship on the RHS does not fulfill its role to balance the composition...as the image is fairly imbalanced. The shimmer in the reflection is kind of interesting...but the harsh glare distracts from the cool pattern. The posts and line shoots out of the frame on LHS..doesn't help the composition either. But I see what you were going for...not bad.

 

[WesternGuy]

If no one else will say it, I guess I will - it's a snapshot and as charlie76 has pointed out, while it is not that bad, there are a number of compositional issues including the fact that the image itself is very cluttered - two boats together, posts on the dock sticking up, red and yellow baskts(?), etc. Sorry Rick, but I call them as I see them - it does nothing for me.

WesternGuy

 

[Rick58]

Hey guys, thanks. That's what I was looking for.

I walked around that scene several times trying to get a feeling of the crowded fishing dock without the "snaphot" look. Seems I failed.
Those damn dock posts were my nemesis. I actually liked the idea of the colorful baskets throwing in a splash of color. Looking at it again, I think it was too small to work. I didn't catch the blown out whites. Funny, if it was somone elses photo, I would have caught it instantly
Here's what was going through my mind when I took this to AVOID the tourist, snapshot look:

Keep from shooting the boat square-on
Keep the rule of 3rds in mind
Insure everything is square and level
Give a feeling of how crowded the little wharf is
Find an angle to include the background boat.
I saw the dock posts, and didn't want them to appear to be shooting out of the ships deck, but unfortunately they weren't going anywhere.

Instead of the overall scene, maybe I should have moved in for some smaller, detail shots

EDIT: Besides the blown out whites and those darn dock posts, I think the photo gives the feel of Turners Creek very well, BUT, I have emotional ties to the area. I think all amateur photographers need to keep in mind that most people viewing your photos, aren't going to know or care about your particular subject. You need to separate yourself from the great vacation you just had or, in my case, the years I spent growing up around this location and the love I have for fishing boats and the bay in general. These things mean nothing to others. You need to photograph from strickly an artistic point of view and keep the other shots, a.k.a. this photo, for the family scrapbook.

 

[Frequency]

This is reasonably good; i liked the reflection patterns on the boat; probably you could have made that the main point of attraction... like capturing the front half of the boat with this pattern in prominence

Regards