Main Beach

[garyhill]

The attached image is taken at my local beach just after the sun has cleared the horizon and is a stitch from 7 indivual photos. This is part of a portfolio of images that I am building up to offer for sale locally. I have another version which followed the traditional rule of thirds (2/3 sand, 1/3 sky) but I felt this shot worked the best. Some clouds in the sky would have been nice but alas it was not to be on this particular day.

Comments welcome.

Cheers,

Gary

[Chris Calohan]

Being a bit nitpicky but I love everything about the image except the house as I feel it draws my attention away from the undulating patterns in the sand.

[Richowens]

Gary,

 I am gong to suggest you go back and shoot it again and again if necessary. I have one that took 
8 trips over a 4 year period to finally get what I saw in my mind 4 years earlier.

 I see the story as about the sand patterns. Blue sky and houses on the cliff just detract from it.
I want to see mostly beach , much less sky and cliff.

Of course this is all my opinion.

Rich

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

The sand has a very interesting pattern, which could have made a compelling photo, had the camera been tilted down. I assume that your 2/3 version accomplishes that? On the other hand, it is probably rather difficult to make a panorama with a camera tilted down.

[David Eckels]

I agree the house is distracting and too much sky. What about shifting your POV to the left? I do like the patterns in the sand and the way the light has caught the edges. Depending on how the rest turned out, I'd probably go for a little more brightness, too. Good luck and have fun with this.

[garyhill]

Thanks again for everyones comments, particularly about the house. I have tried to find a spot on the beach where I can hide the house behind the trees or as suggested change the viewing angle to effectively take it out of the picture but have not found anything I like yet. I will definately have to keep trying.

Cheers,

Gary

[rogerxnz]

I also think this is a compelling image. However, I would clone away the house and the white structure at the beach edge of the bush.

I think if you tilted the camera down, you may miss the interesting land mass to the right.

I would try cropping the top half of the sky to give more prominence to the dunes.

If you did not like the resultant long, thin image after cropping the sky, I would use content aware scaling to compress the right third of the image (but not the right land mass) until you had a satisfying ratio with the height of the image. Doing this, would reduce the long distances between the orange "walls" of the dunes in that area and provide more interest there.
Roger

[Justan]

>However, I would clone away the house and the white structure at the beach edge of the bush.

Yes + what appears to be a power line tower. Do a little work to make it appear pristine and it's a winner that can transport the viewer to a simple place of rich colors, textures, and forms.

[rogerxnz]

Here's the result of my suggestions.
Roger

[Tony Jay]

I would certainly agree with the sentiment to keep shooting this location in different weather and light and see what turns up.
You definitely have an eye for this and the technique for panoramas taped.
The result you have posted is a fine image.
Nonetheless, you have received several interesting suggestions to explore.
It is noteworthy that Americans in particular tend to like landscapes that look wild - a trend that is also prevalent in Australia.

Tony Jay

[garyhill]

Thanks again to everyone for their comments and Roger for his version. Has given me some good ideas for the future.

Cheers,

Gary

[cmi]

The light and the sand pattern is good, but I want to see more of the water, its not satisfying in the composition.

[Michael West]

Here's the result of my suggestions.
Roger

Thats "what I was thinking" when I encountered the first iteration.  "more" sand less sky.

Very nice