Abandoned Boats

[Teewinot]

Hello everyone! I've been a lurker for a while, but I've finally decided to join. I really have gotten a lot of useful tips from this site. I'm an NPS park ranger turned aspiring photographer and I'd love to learn more from all of you here!

This is sort of a practice post to make sure I know how to upload photos and such, but I would also appreciate critique. I usually just photograph nature and I would like to expand my horizons. I've also been trying out some of the editing techniques described on this site. I took the original shot 2 years ago (in Dry Tortugas NP), but resurrected it recently and did some editing on it this week. This shot is about 1/4 the size of the original (I wanted to highlight these boats) and I basically just duplicated the layer, did a gaussian blur and an overlay blend. I also increased the saturation a bit.

In any case, any thoughts would be appreciated!

Teewinot

[Saralonde]

Teewinot, welcome! I'm glad you decided to stop lurking and join us. Wow, your job is perfect for nature shots.

I don't know what your original image looked like, so I don't know how you originally chose to crop it. To get even more emphasis on the boats, you might want to show less of the water and move the line between the water and land up so it doesn't cut your picture in half. Just above the trees might work. You could even crop off the half boat on the left side. The color of your boats stands out nicely. I love the worn off color on them, definitely gives them character. Great subject.

[Digidave]

Welcome to the Forums. It appears to me that the boats may be a little too saturated. Not much just a little bit. It probably helped to bring out the green grass & all but the boats, a tad to much. If you would have gotten a little lower & got more of the water in the picture it may have looked a little better. I'm just an amateur so take my critiquing with a grain of salt.

Being a park ranger I hope we can see some great shots coming in the future. Do you take a camera with you to work? You gonna catch some wildlife with your camera? Don't be afraid to come back for some more critiquing.

[Digidave]

Saralonde, Looks like we were writing at the same time, & my critique is almost the opposite of yours. Just goes to show you how 2 people can see things so differently.

[Saralonde]

That's what makes it all so interesting, Digidave. There is no right or wrong. If there was, all our pictures would look the same!

[purplepixie]

Hi and welcome Teewinot. Love the image - It could be my screen, but I would lighten the whole image just a tad. Jealous of your job. Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

[Teewinot]

Hey everyone...thanks for the warm welcome! I agree with the critique on cropping...I was feeling the "split in half" look and will try to fix that. Thanks also for the saturation tips. I love color and often find myself over-saturating things in my photos...oops! In this case I wanted the shot to have a bit of an ethereal feel, so I intentionally increased the saturation beyond what would seem realistic. Glad to get some perspective, however...everyone sees things differently and it's awesome!

Just some clarification on my job situation - when I said I am an NPS park ranger turned aspiring photographer, I should have clarified that was a park ranger and have turned to an aspiring photographer (left that career path recently to get married and settle in Wisconsin to plan a family...being a park ranger usually means moving frequently, not to mention the lack of national parks in my fine state). Perhaps it was a subconscious thing in typing that because I miss being a ranger! In any case, I got lots of shots on the job and it gave me a great start in photography.

Here's my original shot if anyone is interested:


I heavily cropped because, as I said, I wanted to emphasize the boats....I also don't really like the white sky. When I was taking the shot I wasn't really paying much attention to exposure.

Thanks again, and glad to be here!

[Saralonde]

Yeah, probably a little less saturation would be better. There are so many things going on in that image you could probably crop it 3 or 4 ways, the boats on land, the smal boat to the left, the larger one to the right, etc.

[lazyrust]

Welcome Teewinot. These forums are fun and intelligent. Like Digidave, I am too an amateur so I am still learning about the craft of photography.

I love the boats on land. Used old boats are very photographic. If you would like, try a crop that is wider than tall that includes all three boats with just some water. Now for something real daring, once you have the crop, turn the photo into a black and white. Digital makes experimenting fun.

[Digidave]

In this case I wanted the shot to have a bit of an ethereal feel, so I intentionally increased the saturation beyond what would seem realistic.

In this case you would want a tighter crop. To lose some of the water.