Is this a good picture or is there something wrong with me

[Emegra]

Hi guys
This is a picture that was originally taken in colour but I think it looks better in B&W it was taken this morning and is probably the best of a bad bunch, The plan was to take the sunrise over the Tay estuary looking towards Dundee from Tayport on the south side of the Tay estuary, but when I got there the fog was like pea soup and I couldn't as much as see Dundee let alone photograph it, so I took this photo along the coastline facing west with the sun behind me, at first I didn't pay much attention to it but the more I look at it the more I like it without knowing why, so is it a decent picture or is there something wrong with me ?



Graeme

 

[vintagesnaps]

I think it's good. The lighthouse is rather far to the left so the balance of the composition might have been better not having that so far to one side, but I don't know that I'd crop it but instead leave it as is. It's pretty interesting, and I don't know how experienced you are as a photographer but I think knowing if you got a good photo or not might come with time. (And even then I think we can sometimes second guess ourselves.) This was good getting something with what conditions were there.

 

[snowbear]

I like it. Sharon has a point, but I think I prefer the diagonal composition and balance the way it is.

 

[vintagesnaps]

Yeah, I didn't see a possible crop that would make it better, sometimes off balance can work. It would probably make for a nice print.

 

[Emegra]

Thanks for your critique guys it's much appreciated, I'm not an experienced photographer by any stretch of the imagination although I've dabbled in photography for a long time, work and family commitments have given me little time but I suppose I've reached the stage in my life where I'm determined to make time.

From a photographic standpoint that mornings photoshoot was a disaster the fog come over from the sea just as the sun was rising and it was a complete wipeout, there wasn't a shot to be had anywhere and that photo was the best I could get but i'm not in the least disappointed, I learned a few things and I can always go back there another day, for me it's not all about the photography it's a means of being alone and detaching myself from the real world even if it's just for a short while and just doing something I enjoy.


Graeme

 

[Peeb]

I like it, Graeme. Could you post color version for comparison?

 

[Amocholes]

I like it.

 

[Emegra]

I like it, Graeme. Could you post color version for comparison?

When I try to post the colour .jpeg directly from my PC I'm getting an error message saying the file is too big, so I've posted it to Imgur and inserted the image from there, hope that's ok

 

[Warhorse]

I much prefer the B&W.

 

[lance70]

Looks great to me, B&W is my personal fav but all of this is subjective......crop it however you like...

 

[Derrel]

I prefer the color version.

 

[vintagesnaps]

The color version is good too, but I think in B&W it emphasizes the varied tones of dark and light and enhances a mood to the image.

Good that you asked for opinions, since you thought it was good but wondered. Maybe because of the weather conditions and you didn't get much that seemed any good it took looking at it later to realize you did get something good out of the day after all.

 

[Emegra]

Well I have to thank you all for your interest & comments, you've blew me away, my initial reaction when I converted it to B&W was that B&W had more impact and depicted the mood of the scene as I remember it better but the more I view the colour the more I'm warming to it,

If I'm being honest the photo was a bit of a fluke, the point of the photo was to practice adding foreground interest to my pictures hence the rocks at the front which I think worked fairly well so the important thing for me is what I've learned from the photo as well as all your comments, another lesson I learned was that you don't need high end equipment to get a decent picture, that picture was taken with an old Canon 350 RebelXT (8MP), with a stock 28-55mm lens.


Graeme

 

[Grandpa Ron]

My personal opinion is, this is one of those photos that looks better in black and white. I do not see where color adds anything and it distracts from the mood.

A also think that your cropping does an excellent job of drawing the eye to the light house while keep any background distractions buried in the fog.

 

[LRLala]

I like the color version better because it draws my eye into the image more and into the lighthouse. Very interesting...