Kiwi sunrise

vonnagy · Mar 20, 2004

Well, last night I decided to get up at 5 am to catch the sunrise. But I totally forgot that daylights savings was today and I woke up at 4 am. "D'oh!!!" Anyways, here are a couple of pics.

I am least impressed with the first - just very cliched, but since this thread is actually called kiwi sunrise, I didn't want to disapoint.

Second though it was taken with a tripod, suffered from a bit of camera shake (hard to tell in smaller version) but I liked the 'smooth water' look.

Last one is the one I want you guys to look at, what do you think of this wheelbarrow? I had to use my tripod as a monopod because the incline was soo steep.

Any comments/critiques/suggestions are welcome as always!

Harpper · Mar 20, 2004

vonnagy said:
Well, last night I decided to get up at 5 am to catch the sunrise. But I totally forgot that daylights savings was today and I woke up at 4 am. "D'oh!!!" Anyways, here are a couple of pics.

Well, the pictures were worth it! The first two are amazing. Your second is my favorite because of the composition and color tones. The smooth water you mentioned is also a nice touch. Damm vonnagy you have to stop making us look bad with your great pictures...well, at least stop making me look bad. :wink:

There are too many good photographers on this forum...

Your last one I'm still undecided about. There's definitely a story there but I don't know if the composition is telling me anything. I don't know what you tell you von. Maybe try it as a macro? :scratch:

aggiezach · Mar 20, 2004

wonderful! I'm a big fan of #2 as well, but I'll have to pick #3 as my favorite! I love it when I find old stuff like that. Makes for an interesting picture. Great job!

Jeff Canes · Mar 20, 2004

Nice work Mark. Love the smooth water looks in #2, but the foreground IMO look to bright it keep drawing my eyes to it

#1 is preface as is

mrsid99 · Mar 21, 2004

Really like that second one...great shot.
That last one bothers me somewhat.....I can only assume a drunken road worker ran his vehicle off the road.

vonnagy · Mar 21, 2004

mrsid99 said:
Really like that second one...great shot.
That last one bothers me somewhat.....I can only assume a drunken road worker ran his vehicle off the road.

wonderful! I'm a big fan of #2 as well, but I'll have to pick #3 as my favorite! I love it when I find old stuff like that. Makes for an interesting picture. Great job!

Your last one I'm still undecided about. There's definitely a story there but I don't know if the composition is telling me anything. I don't know what you tell you von. Maybe try it as a macro?

Lol, I was undecided about number thats why i posted it. Aggie pointed out why i love it, its was sort of a surprised by it and I thought the lighting on it was cool. Mr. Sid, you are probably not too wrong about the drunk worker. Harpper I think I will go for a macro on this one next time.

When I look at it now, the subject is a bit obscured by the small tree in front and it kinda divides up the picture :? anyways, I am beginning to see ways I can get this shot to work next time i'm around it, but of course any further suggestions would be valuable!

manda · Mar 21, 2004

i like the framing of the 1st

the water in the 2nd os divine.

lovely as always Mark

manda · Mar 21, 2004

and as i was just saying to you..the 3rd has character, but id be interested to see it black and white.

vonnagy · Mar 21, 2004

Manda, i redid this as a duotone, i seem to like it better now. My eyes are hurting though so i'll have another look at this 2morrow

thanks for the suggestion

LaFoto · Mar 21, 2004

No.
I say "no" to #3 in b+w (or duotone for that matter).
Apart from the fact that my first thought was "Now, WHO may have thrown this wheelbarrow away like this?" I much like the colours (read carefully: COLOURS!) that the early sun is giving this picture. You hardly ever get as intense colours as you do with a very slanting sun. This is what I like - MUCH!

I like #2, too, but would have wished for the flash to be put out, so it would not illumunate the trunk in the foreground.

Daylight saving has stopped THIS weekend in New Zealand? We only go to daylight saving (thus losing one hour during the night) next weekend!

I admire you for getting up extra early for your photography. I always TELL myself that I OUGHT to do this... but don't...

And I must second what Harpper says: sooo many good photos out here, they DWARF me...

karissa · Mar 21, 2004

Ok, so I'm going to go against the grain of everyone. I really like the 1st one. I love the composition with the tree framing the sun set. It is my favorite.

The second one bothers me because the top of the ball of leaves at the end of the one branch gets cut off. The colors are nice however.

The third one is confusing and busy to me but the colors are so vivid. I'm jealous.

markc · Mar 21, 2004

karissa said:
Ok, so I'm going to go against the grain of everyone. I really like the 1st one. I love the composition with the tree framing the sun set. It is my favorite.

I like the first one, also. I think it has the most potential of the three. If it were me, I'd get a bit brutal with the cropping.

- You don't need that much of the branch to make an effective frame, so I'd crop off two-thirds of it from the top.

- The left side of the image doesn't have much in it. I'd come in to just before where the dark part of the swell starts at the bottom of the image. This will trim off that bit of branch that is now floating in space because of the top crop. This will also be just before where the larger hang-down of the branch starts.

- Come in on the right some to put the sun off-center. Maybe just to the left of where the branch straightens out to horizontal. There isn't much on that side of the image either, so a little cropping won't lose anything.

Doing this will put the emphasis on the sunlight and the swell and will give you a very strong image. The line of the swell leads into the line of the sun's reflection which leads to the sun, but right now, the branch has all the power.

markc · Mar 21, 2004

After repeatedly beating vonnagy over the head and shoulders with a damp mongoose, he agreed to let me take a hack at his image...

I wan't sure if I explained it very well, so here's what I had in mind:

vonnagy · Mar 21, 2004

nice one mark! lol, its still not a favourite image of mine, but the crop looks much better. The main thing i like about the image is the nook in the branch that looks like its going to catch the sun if it rises to high. I guess I prolly should have centered that better too.

damn, gotta get all this damp mongoose fur off me now *heads to the mongoose decontamination unit*

karissa · Mar 22, 2004

Mark, that does look better. I wouldnt have taken quite so much off the left just because I kinda liked that extra space and some how the fact that it is just barely taller than it is long bothers me for some reason. But I do like the crop. Nice work... and I hope you didn't leave any scars on vonnagy. He's a good guy... really!