Beach

[armand]

Lake Michigan shore

[BobDavid]

... so much different than the beach along the gulf in Fla.

[luxborealis]

"Beach": The flat lighting, central placement of the driftwood and unsharp foreground shrub all contribute to this photograph being not too visually appealing.

"Beach-2": The sweeping curve of the "valley" between the dunes and the clouds in the sky help this photograph to become mildly more interesting than the first.

Neither does much for me.

[armand]

"Beach": The flat lighting, central placement of the driftwood and unsharp foreground shrub all contribute to this photograph being not too visually appealing.

Thank you for your effort but it seems you are jumping the gun a little maybe ??
I attached a crop of the shrub (with a mild sharpening only). I thought the driftwood follows the rule of thirds at a good extent, didn't feel that going more left of right would make the the photograph any stronger.
Light is filtered and it had a dream like appearance compared the the harsh light that was before or after that shot and that's what I was trying to recreate.

PS. you right about the light being flat in the second shot though

[armand]

Here is a version with a little more spark, a slightly different crop and more sharpening.

[luxborealis]

Here is a version with a little more spark, a slightly different crop and more sharpening.

To my eyes, anyway, this second iteration is more appealing with a much stronger foreground-background movement due to the much stronger lines creates by the cropping. The foreground bush (which appeared to me to be unsharp at the screen size version, but is, in fact, as sharp as the rest) still appears as a visual obstacle to my "entering" the scene. If you feel it is a critical element to the overall scene then keep it in. I'm only responding as one who was not there, and can only judge from what I see in the photograph.

If you don't agree with any if this, then feel free to ignore it.

[armand]

I could do without the bush but it was in the way unless I was going closer to that trunk (and walk out of the trail in the dunes which I tried to avoid, even as there no restrictions really) but cloning felt like too much trouble and there wasn't much in there anyway.
I was taken by the weird light and got the composition that I could in the fleeting moment, obviously with some flaws.

[Ed B]

I think you could have a great subject here but I just can't get past the bad light. It's worth revisiting with better light.