Late afternoon mist (Australia)

[Matt S]

Hey all,
I have not posted much at all on this site but it is fantastic.
I shot this a few days ago at a really nice location called Hastings Point in Australia.

Thanks for looking 
http://aquaseen.com/

[Tony Jay]

Nice image.

Some on the forum dislike slow exposures of the ocean but this result is good.

Regards

Tony Jay

[Chairman Bill]

Some on the forum dislike slow exposures of the ocean but this result is good.

I don't dislike them, but like lighthouses, you can wait around for ages with nothing, and then hundreds arrive, all at once.

There's also the issue that a few partially submerged rocks, some milky sea & a sunset, can get a bit same-y after a while.

For what it is, it's nicely done, and certainly no worse than any other similar shot. I just don't find them particularly inspiring.

[fike]

Nice image.

Some on the forum dislike slow exposures of the ocean but this result is good.

Regards

Tony Jay

This is a great image. I actually like long exposure water.  As a counterpoint, I find that the static frozen representation of water is at least as unrealistic as blurred.  Water is a constantly changing and moving thing.  Freezing it in time is unnatural and jarring to me...all those pointy edges and shiny reflections.

[Matt S]

Thanks for the input guys.

I agree that slow exposures are over done but so is many forms of photography. For me its about shooting what I enjoy and I do like slow exposures.

Cheers,
Matt

[Tony Jay]

Thanks for the input guys.

...For me its about shooting what I enjoy and I do like slow exposures...Matt

No argument with that, Matt.
In fact I would say that in order to become a really good photographer one needs to practice all the classic (cliche'd to some) approaches and themes and master them.
In the process novel approaches and techniques may suggest themselves and (in outdoor photography anyway) the light and the weather gods may intersect to allow the occasional truly great image.
At the same time through a process of discovery one also develops one's personal vision and style.
The whole process does take time but it is a very enjoyable voyage of discovery.

A few thoughts

Tony Jay

[Matt S]

Totally agree Tony Jay.

Topside is one side of my photography but my passion is underwater. I find that to get great images you need to be technically good and always be willing to get out in the right conditions.

[Paulo Bizarro]

I like the golden colours and the clouds. This type fo photography may be "over done" by many, and may look repetitive, but I still like coastal landscapes:)

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

I like the golden colours and the clouds. This type fo photography may be "over done" by many, and may look repetitive, but I still like coastal landscapes:)

+1.

[Isaac]

Freezing it in time is unnatural and jarring to me...

For "natural" we have video :-)

The "unnatural" frozen photographic moment is one of the things that allows us to see things we've never seen through photography -- hummingbirds wings, basilisks walking on water, ... Photographers play with time.

[stevenov]

Others have gone off on the smooth/sharp water tangent.  I'll propose another tangent.  This is a lovely image, one that I would enjoy seeing on my wall but for one small problem I have.  I'm always distracted from an image by an off horizontal horizon line, real or perceived.  Despite the strong leading lines in the image, I'm distracted by the horizon.  It is ever so slightly tilted.  Then there is the dark land rise on the left and the crashing wave of white on the right which perceptually cause the horizon to tilt more.  Is it just me?

Steve

[Matt S]

Thanks for all the opinions and thoughts guys.

Steve,
I always have a hard time with the horizons at this location as it is a bay that curves. Also the land on the left does seem to make them look crooked but I am pretty sure its an optical illusion. I may stand corrected on this tho.

Cheers,
Matt

[fike]

Others have gone off on the smooth/sharp water tangent.  I'll propose another tangent.  This is a lovely image, one that I would enjoy seeing on my wall but for one small problem I have.  I'm always distracted from an image by an off horizontal horizon line, real or perceived.  Despite the strong leading lines in the image, I'm distracted by the horizon.  It is ever so slightly tilted.  Then there is the dark land rise on the left and the crashing wave of white on the right which perceptually cause the horizon to tilt more.  Is it just me?

Steve

Don't let an irrational obsession with symmetry torment your aesthetic sense.  In landscape photography, it will vex you to no end.  You want perfect symmetry, photograph architecture.

[louoates]

I admit I'm also affected with TAD (tilt aversion desease). I suspect that I caught it right here on this forum. I have TAD so bad that every time someone dares post an image here I immediately scroll down until just the horizon line shows on top of my screen. Then I run the images through LandscapeLeveler Version 2. The software auto zooms in to the image's horizon and gives you a readout accurate to .000001 of an inch --which averages out to about 1 pixel variance over a horizon that is 120" wide. I can't wait for Version 3, which will auto-send all the relavent calculations, along with a corrected image version, directly to whatever photography blogs you select in its preferences.

[fike]

Should images be accurate or look accurate.  When you photograph an ocean horizon, it should be level...or in the case of a wide angle lens, a bit of an arc would be okay. 

It is rare that we take great photos of only the ocean horizon.  That is often a pretty boring subject, cliched skies and sunsets notwithstanding.  What we frequently photograph is a lake or inlet where there is some element of the land running along the horizon along with the water. In these cases, a level horizon is a visually subjective thing.  If you leveled your camera and tripod and did all the correct lens corrections, you could still have the shape of the land give the illusion of a horizon that is not level. 

Horribly off-kilter images are out there, and when done artlessly, they look look bad.  This one is nowhere near off-kilter enough to warrant that kind of worry. 

[luxborealis]

Lovely image - thanks for sharing.

The blurred water has great texture and detail which is the difference between the technique being don well and not. In this case it'sdone exceptionally well.

[dreed]

The title is "Late afternoon mist".

Where is the mist?

[Matt S]

The title is "Late afternoon mist".

Where is the mist?

Well its not really mist but I was talking about the water.

[jule]

Matt, Thanks for posting this image.

You have restored my faith that there could be an image with the 'misty' water effect that I like.... and this one is it. Usually I start to shudder.... :-)... but this time I feel like whipping off my clothes and wading in the soft water out to the breaking waves.


Julie