East Coast

[ygil707]

Hi. I took these on my recent trip up the east coast. Some are in Maine and in NY. Let me know what you think and what I could do to fix them up

#1


#2


#3




#4

 

[rambler]

In 1 and 2 you have captured the essence of the Maine Coast, pines on a rocky coastline right down to the shoreline. Dramatic skies, too. ( From MA, I spend a lot of time in Maine) I like the way you have framed the images with the trees an shore along the edge. The shore gives a nice line leading our eyes right into the sky in the background. As a general guide line when taking scenes like this, if it is the sky you want to emphasize, fill most of the frame with it, keeping the horizon out of the center. With #2 maybe a bit higher angle could have included the top of the large pine. This might have been an opportunity of an HDR shot which would allow for more detail of the dark trees and rock. In Photoshop you could try to lighten up the dark areas to see how that looks.

In #1 my eyes are drawn right to the bright sun line along the water and then up to the bright spot of the sun. I think you have added just enough of the shore to help frame the image, and the land is far enough away so that I do not think lighting that up would provide enough detail to be as interesting as those rocks might be in #2 if we could see them better. There is a small rock island way in the background about center. There is no need for us to see it, I would clone it out.(minor point) Watch out for tilted horizons. I think #1 has a slight tilt, right side a bit low.

#4 Really neat. Did you use a small aperture (f/11 or F16) to get the starburst effect? I like the way that leaning tree points to the sun. This is a good example of how a backlit scene is used to create silhouettes. Maybe check to see how it looks if you could crop out some of the dark bottom and certainly a small white streak along the left edge near the bottom.

#3 Not a great sky, especially as it goes upwards, and a large washed out area of tress do not help. I do like the color, the lines of the hills and river, however. Our eyes are drawn to bright areas of images and I do not see much of interest in these light areas of this image, trees and the sky. The upper right corner mountains seem out of tonal quality (how is that for a fancy term!) with the rest of the hills. It is there obviously, but it seems out of place with the rest of the image. Do you see what I mean? Anyway, I understand why you took the shot, but it falls a bit short for me. It just does not get that wow reaction as the others do.

BTW For anyone visiting NY, one can be in thousands of acres of protected forests, rugged hills and farmland only 30 or 40 miles out of NYC. A hike along the Appalachian Trail, NY and NJ, is easily accessible from the city by bus or commuter rail. Take your camera!

 

[spacefuzz]

I really like the clouds in 2.

 

[Mully]

I really like #1 and #4 the best..... if you can edit I would open the shadows in #1(just a little)

 

[o hey tyler]

Where did you visit in Maine?

 

[ygil707]

Thanks for the info. I love #3 but unfortunately the sky is way blown out . I had changed my setting from raw to jpeg when I was photographing a friends soccer game but forgot to switch it back before we went here. Missed opportunity . We were in Isle au haut, cutler coast, donnell pond, and bigelow preserve in Maine . The last pic is in the Shenandoah's though.