When all else fails, include a bike

[ELAY]

Sky had looked promising last night, but the clouds didn't really cooperate. So I decided to try to get some cloud, sky, reflection, etc. with a bike zooming by (had to be sneaky, or else the alert cyclists would brake so as not to spoil the shot).

I worked pretty hard trying to get it right from a composition standpoint, but your thoughts would be very welcome -- on that or on anything else. I struggled with exposure, because a couple of the highlights in the clouds would totally blow out if I opened up any more than I did -- in the end i opted for the darker foreground in order to preserve the sky. And yes, it's noisy -- the D40 has a terrific auto-ISO feature that automatically increases ISO in low-light, but which needs to be turned off on occasions like this one.

Cheers,

EL

[clockdoc]

Congratualations on trying something a little different in a well thought out composition. While the rider is a little hard to see, I like the idea. You did a nice job of exposing the overall scene. Next time try some different camera angles (much higher or much lower. Thanks for sharing this with us.

[ELAY]

Thanks Lee.

[Teewinot]

ELAY,

I like this shot's set-up. Great sky, nice reflections, good movement with the biker. Overall cool concept.

I agree with clockdoc that it's a bit dark. I understand that you are going for the silhouette look, but perhaps since the biker is has motion blur, it feels more like we want to see it better. It's hard to explain...hope that makes sense. I guess the other thing I'd say about the biker is that he/she sort of gets lost in the bridge bars since they are all black. Perhaps if there were no bridge bars, then your silhouette would work perfectly?

The only other suggestion I have is to consider that pole with the ball on top. The crop is pretty tight up there, so I would either add more sky, or clone it out (cloning is maybe a better choice since you've got a nice half and half division with the water reflection and adding more sky might break that).

Nice new avatar by the way!

[ELAY]

Teewinot --

Thanks for the feedback (though I felt strangely embarrassed on being called out on my avatar -- like I had been caught preening in front of a mirror or something).

Re the pole -- i actually have a few shots taken about 20 feet further along, without pole. When I first took the shots, I thought the pole might sort be a nice framing device. Funny though, when I uploaded the pic to Flickr to post here, i saw it in a square crop in the preview -- without the pole -- and actually preferred it (to my surprise). By then the post was written, the picture uploaded, so I didn't go back and grab another pic. All of which is to say I agree.

Re the bars -- i wonder if it would have helped if I could have gotten the bike sort of 5 feet further along, more silhouetted against the water.

Thanks for taking the time to weigh in,

EL