Overcast Day at Beach

[ahbnyc]

Applied minimal post-processing to this shot -- looks pretty much like I remember the scene.  On one hand, I find the muted colors appealing in a melancholy sort of way.  On other hand, I worry that maybe this is just an unattractive shot.  Curious what others think.

[Jeremy Roussak]

Applied minimal post-processing to this shot -- looks pretty much like I remember the scene.  On one hand, I find the muted colors appealing in a melancholy sort of way.  On other hand, I worry that maybe this is just an unattractive shot.  Curious what others think.

I think you had to be there.

Jeremy

[brandtb]

What you have now in the frame is not that interesting in either the colors or the "subject" - the lower third of your frame is just uninteresting sand...that said, the "moodiness" of the lower sky and the ocean horizon and waves is somewhat nice together. What is potentially interesting to me is the relation between the small couple now nearly lost at the edge of the frame and the blank beachscape....the contrast btw the "minute and the vast"...or as perhaps some would say...the "finite and the infinite". I would have tried to get something with the people AND the beach in some sort of relation...every different permutation...then come back and look to see if there is anything there that really works... /B

[RSL]

I think you had to be there.

+1.

[ahbnyc]

Thanks for the feedback!

[Riaan van Wyk]

The light you had to work with is unfortunate, but it happens, not much one can do.

[Rob C]

The light you had to work with is unfortunate, but it happens, not much one can do.

And the very same light, with the right girl in the right cheesecloth robes would have been simply stupendous.

You see the injustices in life?

(Just like dealing with Microsoft: I had to register with them last night around midnight in order to make contact, and when I did, there was no way I could find of addressing a problem of NON-connectivity with my SanDisk card reader: that's the obvious rule: no connectivity once you buy something. We offer a contact point but won't let you use it for anything we don't make. SOBs! Of course, if you want to speak on the telephone, from Spain, for hours, here's our number, but don't E-mail us...)

You should come out of retirement, Mr Gates, check your old empire.

Rob C

[ahbnyc]

I appreciate the comments about the light (Rob's especially).  I had done another version (attached) with warmer white balance and more contrast -- it looks more conventionally attractive, but I thought that whatever interest there was in the picture was in the original bleak tone and the small isolated people off to the edge.  I am now convince that it just isn't a very good photo.

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

The image is a bit boring until you see the people. I like it.

On images like this I use to crop both sky and foreground, could be worth a try. Would be nice to have people a bit to the right.

Best regards
Erik

Applied minimal post-processing to this shot -- looks pretty much like I remember the scene.  On one hand, I find the muted colors appealing in a melancholy sort of way.  On other hand, I worry that maybe this is just an unattractive shot.  Curious what others think.

[Ed Blagden]

Applied minimal post-processing to this shot -- looks pretty much like I remember the scene.  On one hand, I find the muted colors appealing in a melancholy sort of way.  On other hand, I worry that maybe this is just an unattractive shot.  Curious what others think.

Hi, and a happy New Year to you.

I kind of get what you are trying to do with this shot but it doesn't really work.  Basically it needs people or some object to draw the eye.  Yes I know there is that couple off to the left but they are so close to the edge it looks like they are there by accident.  The other issue is that there is not enough sky.

As a digression I visited the National Gallery in London the other day on my way back to Nairobi, and spent some time looking at 17th Century Dutch paintings and some Turners.  A lot of the Dutch early landscapes and seascapes are very beige and "dull", just like your shot, but all of them have something else in them - usually peasants, maybe a boat, a windmill etc.  This is an example of what I mean.  Your photo is very reminiscent of a Dutch landscape painting before the artist put the subject in!  So don't be too discouraged by comments about bad light etc.  There is nothing wrong with the light or the colours, you just need a subject.

Shoot this scene again and you might pull off something special!

[brandtb]

Van Goyen, "A Windmill...".  I'm not so sure that this painting is the best example? The "power" of this great painting is in no small part from the intense "chiaroscuro"...or contrasts btw the light and dark built in to the very strong compositional structure.

[Ed Blagden]

Van Goyen, "A Windmill...".  I'm not so sure that this painting is the best example? The "power" of this great painting is in no small part from the intense "chiaroscuro"...or contrasts btw the light and dark built in to the very strong compositional structure.

Probably not the best example but enough to illustrate to the OP what I was trying to say - the need for a subject, and the need for more sky... I don't know what was going on up there in the OP's photo but I expect there would have been enough drama in the sky to make something interesting.

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

I like the subdues light and color.
The couple simply is a bit too small to make the impact desired (I assume).
A good idea a bit overstretched.

[ahbnyc]

The couple's appearance in the picture was accidental only in the sense that I didn't arrange for them to be there -- I was certainly conscious of them being there when I took the picture.  I still kind of like the idea of their being so small and off in the periphery, lost in the vast featureless landscape, but it is probably too much (or more accurately, too little) of a good thing -- too high concept and I am increasingly convinced that it doesn't make for a very compelling photograph.

Again, I very much appreciate the comments that have been made.  A happy new year to all.