...it's the old 'Touching Edges Problem' that kills the sunset shots for me...
That's it, you are not my friend anymore!
Just kidding, of course. It is a fair point.
I have a short and a long response. The short one:
it is what it is. The long one (although it appears even shorter):
it depends.
It depends on who is looking at (or dare I say buying?) the image. I've come to realize that photographers, in general, are a) very picky, sticklers for "rules," and are bothered by things that others simply do not notice or pay attention to and b) not (my) buyers. This isn't directed at you in particular, Dave, as I am probably the same when I look at other people's work with my photographer's hat on.
First, a bit of a background. Let's start with a list of excuses
- the drizzle was annoying
- it was hot and humid
- even hotter when I had to put my rain jacket on
- sandflies were biting me (that night I couldn't fall asleep till 6am, as I had about more than two dozen painful and itching bite marks on my legs, and for the whole week since I have been walking around Florida with my long trousers on, trying to avoid the impression of a drug user's skin lesions)
- I am lazy
As you might have noticed, in the high-key shot, the pilings are well below the horizon. That's just because I am lazy, as I said, and prefer to shoot from tripod without having to bend down or squat (age, damn it!). But then, when the sun finally started to show up, and the colors exploded, I realized I need to have the leftmost bird framed between the two clouds and silhouetted against the brighter area in-between. For that, I had to pick up the tripod and move to the left, and closer to the water line. At that point, I realized I am too high and the bird would not be against the sky, but against the much darker water. So, I battled my laziness and decided to shorten the legs (the tripod ones, obviously; I'd prefer mine extended, if possible). Since I was shooting vertical panoramas at the same time, I also had to readjust the leveling base, between the ball head and tripod. At that point, I got what I wanted: the leftmost bird nicely framed and fully above the horizon, and all the other birds as well. To get there, I had to push tripod legs into the sand as far as it would go. Lowering the legs any further would have required untigheting and retightening all three, and then re-adjusting the leveling base. Given how quickly the light changes at sunset, especially so south (it ain't Iceland, when the sunset can last for hours), I started shooting with that setting. My main focus, literally and figuratively, was on the birds at that moment, not pilings.
Now, a bit of retroactive justifications:
As I said, pilings were not my main concern at the time of shooting. However, had I thought that the shot is unusable because of that, I would have sent it to the bin already in Lightroom. Why not? In general, I agree with you about the horizon touching problem. Have I had the pilings as the main and only element in the picture, I would have agreed with you that the shot should be killed. But they are not. It's the birds. Pilings are there, but not dominant. Birds are. In retrospect, have I had the pilings protrude above the horizon, I have a feeling it would actually "pierce" the horizon in such a way to break the sense of tranquility that a long, uninterrupted horizon creates, especially in the panorama version.
If only we could see versions with different height levels, to compare. Oh, wait, we can! I was shooting with two other photographer friends, Noel de Christian and Santos López. They posted their pictures publicly in the meantime, on Instagram, so I can share them here. Santos even has both versions, above and below the horizon.
And finally, touching the horizon may not be such an anathema after all, as the Grand Master Pete Turner can attest to that
Ultimately, if it annoys you - I take the blame
If it doesn't - I take the credit
In any case, we can have a lovely discussion about it.
P.S. For some reason, the attached images lost their authors in the description. The first one is Noel de Christian, the next two Santos López, and the last one Pete Turner
