Ice - A Beginner's Attempt

[theycallmechad]

So I got my new Sony A65 a couple weeks ago, and I have no clue what I'm doing or how to do it. I approach Photography in the beginning much the same way hunters use shotguns to take down a starling: with enough bird shot in the air you're bound to hit something. I figure, until I learn what I'm doing and/or how to do it, that if I take enough pictures, eventually I'll get one that's somewhat not horrible. This is one such picture.

Please don't hold back the criticism. If I am to learn anything, I need to hear it all. With this particular picture, I'm most interested in criticism on my composition, though everything else is welcomed.

Camera: Sony A65
Lens: Minolta "Beer Can" 70/200, F4
Time Taken: High Noon, Clear Day, Outside
Original Size: 24 Mega Pixels
Not sure what else I need to put here...




*EDIT*

Frequency in his post below, said it would be better if there were a sparkle in the drop. Here is an adjacent ice cycle with such a sparkle (it's really just the sun in the drop, but it works). I didn't think the colors turned out quite as nicely, so I didn't post it originally.

 

[Frequency]

I liked it much... if there were a sparkle on the drop...have you thought of that?

Regards

 

[theycallmechad]

I appreciate the feedback. I did indeed take one with a sparkle, but it was a different ice cycle (right next to the ice cycle in the first picture). I didn't think the colors were quite as nice, but I may be wrong.

Apparently picking the right shot might also be a problem for me...

 

[Frequency]

i think the first one is better...and what i did mean was a starry shine...can you achieve that?

All the Best

 

[theycallmechad]

Any ideas how? Given how it has become of late too warm for such shots, I have the better part of a year to learn how toget the starry sparkle.

 

[480sparky]

..and what i did mean was a starry shine...can you achieve that?..........

Like this?

 

[fokker]

Sparky that looks, um, terrible. :greenpbl:


OP, your photo isn't bad, there's not a lot one can say about it as it is a pretty simple photo. The only advice I will give to you is to rethink your strategy. You want to be more like a sniper who hits all his targets than the hunter with the shotgun. You can take a million ****ty photos by just randomly pressing the shutter button, and you might get one or two okay shots but you won't improve as a photographer. To do that you have to think carefully about all aspects of every shot you take.

 

[480sparky]

Sparky that looks, um, terrible. :greenpbl:..........

Since it was just an quick-n-dirty attempt at verifying what Frequency was mentioning, I didn't really care about 'artistic' qualities.

 

[Frequency]

I hint at that.... but not in photoshop.....

 

[480sparky]

I hint at that.... but not in photoshop.....

I think it would be hard to achieve the same effect in the field. Yes, you could use a star filter, but it would apply the effect over the entire image, not just selectively like I did in post.

 

[theycallmechad]

The "Sniper approach" is my eventual goal. I'm trying a wide range of shots to hopefully learn to dial it down gradually and "hit the mark" more frequently. I agree about its simplicity. Where sometimes simplicity can be good, this picture doesn't really do anything but show that i snagged a drop before it fell with a blue sky in the background. It's pretty flat.

Thank you for your criticism.