Marlborough Sounds

[michswiss]

I've been around many more sheep than people recently so forgive an indulgence at an attempt at landscape.

[popnfresh]

The composition is ok, but I have a problem with the blocked shadow areas and the blank sky. The light wasn't optimal for this scene. It also looks like you were using a polarizer that could have been rotated to avoid the extreme unevenness in the sky's tonality (or maybe not used at all)--the left sky is too dark, imo.

[wolfnowl]

I like it, but I agree in trying to lighten up the left side of the frame - both the sky and the mountain.

Mike.

[RSL]

Jennifer, This isn't your usual thing. I have a hunch you were doing an "Ansel" and that what Pop sees as a polarizer is actually tone-mapping done in post-processing. Pop's got a point about the shadows that got pushed down a bit too far for viewing as a JPEG on a monitor, though I doubt the clipping would be too severe in a print. I don't agree about the light,though. I think it was optimal. The composition is good too.

It's a fine shot, but, knowing how good you are on the street I can't help paraphrasing Walker Evans: "It's a beautiful shorline. So what?"

[tom b]

Russ, New Zealand is definitely a landscape environment. The closest you will come to street photography will be to photograph backpackers jumping off bridges or rolling down hills in Zorbs. If I had the energy to get my passport replaced I would have been there myself. I'll just have to settle for blue skies, 20F plus weather and the beautiful NSW South Coast. Two weeks of holidays left, it's a hard life.

The South Island is beautiful, enjoy your holiday. Try to get to Cape Foulwind at low tide. The coast at Omau is a hidden treasure. Talking about sheep, my image in Rob's without prejudice escaped comment, but where else in the world would anyone advertise that they buy dags.

Cheers,   

[michswiss]

We spent a night at Cape Foulwind and I was able to get a couple of shots at low tide from one of the hidden beaches.  Alas, I'm no landscape photographer thus didn't do it any justice.  I might post one in any case just for interests sake. The trip was ~16 day circumnavigation of the south island always heading clockwise, so we pretty much saw everything weather permitting.

I so wanted to shoot so much more on this trip, but regrettably some recent health issues have slowed me down substantially.  I'm on the mend though and hope to be out shooting more frequently soon.

For the M/S image, it was early-ish morning light and I was using a polarising filter.  The sky was pale to deep blue from east to west.  The shadows are slightly plugged in the conversion, but not so severely as they show in the jpg.  The colour version has more detail but I felt it took away from the structures and textures.  I don't use P/S yet, but I might start as I'm beginning to see uses for layering and tone mapping.

[RSL]

Jennifer, I'm not knocking it. I just prefer your street work, which is way out there beyond what most people are capable of doing on the street. If Tom's right, you might look for backpackers jumping off bridges.

But Mike and Pop are both right. The tone mapping could have been better, especially the sky over the hgher part of the hills. If you decide to go to Photoshop and can afford it, give a thought to adding Nik's plugins. Silver Efex Pro is the best B&W conversion software I've seen. In the color version of your picture, before you made the B&W transition, Viveza would have let you very easily correct the sky tones.

Instead of Photoshop you might think about Lightroom. For a photographer it has practically everything Photoshop has. I stick with Photoshop because I've used it for so many years that it's become an old friend, but if I were just getting into serious post-processing I'd probably go with Lightroom. The Nik plugins work with Lightroom too.

Hope your health problem goes away soon.