New Composition w/ my 10-20mm Sigma - C&C Please!

[sroc3]

Been waiting (for 2 weeks) for the right amount of "no wind" to take this shot from under the bridge.

10mm (15mm w/ 1.5 crop factor), f/11, iso400, 15s exposure.

 

[LaFoto]

Nice time of the day you had in order to take this, I like how there are already lights on inside the houses.
And true enough: no ONE ripple on the water, a perfect mirror. Cool.
I'm not quite so sure myself that the bridge is really helping oyur photo any, though, the huge triangle it puts to the righthand side of your frame is quite distracting to me, I must admit...

 

[fokker]

Yeah I agree with above ^^ The photo is 'nice' and good technically but the composition is just a bit off. Hard to say what I would do different without being there, but some other angles might have worked better I think.

 

[sroc3]

Sounds good people!!!! I shall return and improvise! I wanted to get a cool reflection of the arch in the water and needed to get closer. I was kinda at the end of my tripods reach already.....needed to put on galoshes or something. I want to get a position from under the arch and then shoot outwards, but then that would mean me literally submerging half of my body in the water for the shot. Oh well.....I shall return to try again!!!

 

[noodles]

i quite like it.. i enjoy the composition in this photo.

 

[pgriz]

The other way of getting perfectly smooth water is to use a long shutter (say 5 to 30 seconds), which will blur anything moving, including any little waves. But, you need a rock-solid tripod, and all the usual vibration-reducing techniques (mirror lockup, remote release, etc.). From a composition point-of-view, I would aim the camera slightly more down, so that the horizon line is at the upper 2/3 line (ie, less sky, more water), because the light reflections in the water will probably be more interesting than the featureless sky (unless you can arrange for some dramatic clouds!).

Edit: didn't notice that you used 15 sec. So you already know about that method of smoothing the waters...

 

[mrstravis]

Mirror image in the water was neat, I love the pic but was unclear of the focal point.

 

[sroc3]

The other way of getting perfectly smooth water is to use a long shutter (say 5 to 30 seconds), which will blur anything moving, including any little waves. But, you need a rock-solid tripod, and all the usual vibration-reducing techniques (mirror lockup, remote release, etc.). From a composition point-of-view, I would aim the camera slightly more down, so that the horizon line is at the upper 2/3 line (ie, less sky, more water), because the light reflections in the water will probably be more interesting than the featureless sky (unless you can arrange for some dramatic clouds!).

Edit: didn't notice that you used 15 sec. So you already know about that method of smoothing the waters...

My thoughts exactly on pointing the camera downwards more and taking in more of the water Problem was that it was all grass and moss that would have messed up the cleanliness of the photo. As for the water smoothness, I was waiting for a day that had literally no wind. In this area of the canal, even a slight gust creates ripples that mess up any chance of a good reflection. This day would have been "picture perfect" (pardon the pun) if the sky was lit up by the sunset with some colored clouds.....More camping tie required I guess HAHA.

Thanks for the input!