Black Marble at the ocean

[Josh-H]

From a small fishing village in the South Island of New Zealand

Comments welcome as always - the back story to this photograph on my blog.
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[fredjeang]

Very nice!

I just regret the very visible "thin blue line" on the horizon between sea and sky.
It look too straight and reveals the post prod (or if it was not the case, makes think of it).

Cheers.

[John R]

It seems the trouble with the Digital era, at least as far as post processing is concerned, is that people don't believe a good image can come straight out of the camera. As this photo and Tim has shown and reiterated many times, it is the art of seeing that matters most. The black rocks are a wonderful counterpoint to the white in the clouds. And the white flow leads the eye through the image. Many people do not realize that shapes can be implied as well as apparent. The clouds give the impression that they are enveloping the world. This is a wonderful image with a blue-sea feeling.

JMR

[fredjeang]

John,
I certainly agree with your comments.

The thing is, out of digital, when I looked at the pic, I did not thought about "how this" or "how that". I just let me transporting (or not) by a picture.
But we are in the critic section, so I guess this is a place to put our comments and sensations in all the aspects involved. I saw something, I may be right or wrong. Others might see it, agree or disagree, say other point or say it's perfect and that's the interest of this section. In fact we end all learning more with all the different visions IMHO.

In this case, this is a beautifull pic, but the line presence showed-up to me. The thing is that the sky and the sea are like cotton-wool and the line is straight, and have a blue  that seems in another color scale than the sky. I felt that something where not totally integrated. It could be an authentic shot with no retouching, but in that case I would do something there anyway, very subtle.

Regards.

[GrantKaye]

Lovely atmosphere in this shot Josh. The blurred motion of the water and the clouds compliment the stark sharpness of the rocks. At first study, I was going to suggest that you might think about cropping 5% or so off the rocks at the bottom, but on second thought I think it's fine as-is. I really like how the whitewash of the waves draws my eye to the center left horizon, where it looks like there were some waves breaking on a shoal of some sort, and beyond that there happens to be an interesting light spot in the weather on the horizon.

Can I ask where the photo was taken? I used to live on the South Island for a few years.

[tim wolcott]

I think the image is very nice, also sellable.  

John thanks for the compliment, I do believe this is what is wrong about digital also.  I find that to many people think being technical is the answer.  Printing technical and shooting technical or something you need to know but shooting and seeing the art within the image is much harder.  One incorporates studying and memorizing what can be done technical, but the other is way more important.

I find when I lecture or do workshops all to many are wrapped up in tech.  But when I show them what went into an image being created and how to examine your image and pre-visualize it then they start to think outside the box a little and hopefully where that can lead.

Thanks again the image is delightful.

But I would crop into the bottom just a little to cover up the very front of the boulders front edge.  This would allow your eye to move thru the image better.  This was the first thing that caught my eye, great observation Grant.  All to many people don't fine tune their cropping so the eye flows thru the image.  This will be seen even more noticeable when printed on display.  Tim

[Josh-H]

Thanks for the very kind words and feedback Gents - appreciated.

Can I ask where the photo was taken? I used to live on the South Island for a few years.

Taken just outside the town of Kaikoura - near where all the tourists go to gawk at the seals.

[Stuarte]

I'm not at all sure what's meant by the talk of processing etc.  Surely no digital image is truly used "straight out of the camera".  Somewhere along the line, raw conversion comes into play and when that happens processing choices are applied to the various parameters e.g. sharpness, saturation.  Or maybe I'm completely off track on this one.

What I very much like on this photo are the overall tonalities and the way the horizon is slightly curved, at least on my screen.  It's the sort of scene that I find moving and inspiring.

I am not a big fan of two elements of this picture.  The first is the wide angle effect that pulls the closest elements foward and gives them a perpendicular-to-the-viewer effect, especially in a square-on shot.  The second is the slow-shutter blurred motion of the water and clouds.  It used to wow me when I first saw it on photography magazines a few years back but these days I find it a bit deja vu.  However, I guess this is a matter of taste and the popularity of these elements in photo magazines suggests that people like them.

I also find the image a tad too symmetrical on the vertical axis.  The movement is front to back, with no strong diagonal elements.

Having said all that, it's still way superior to anything I've produced yet.

[EduPerez]

I like it, and this is precisely the type of photography I will pursuit as soon as I can get back to the camera.