Rainbow River

[AndrewPDX]

Here's one from the 4th of July in Portland, Oregon. Notice the crowd of people on the bridge, since the fireworks happen a little ways up the river (off-screen to the left).

General critiques are welcome, but my question to you: The skyline really isn't that interesting- are the colors of this scene enough to make up for the relative lack of other elements?



Click for a bigger view (and see if you can find the hidden firework in the shot!)

D5000
18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @
18mm f/8.0
ISO 200
5 sec
No Flash
0 EV

[Lightwriter]

I like it! I don't think it's lacking anything. The colors in the water and in the sky are great.

[Michael_2010]

The colors are what make me stop long enough to take a second look. Might try some alternate crops as an exercise, but I still think this one is more about the brilliant colors than the actual cityscape.

[Krusty79]

If the colors are what you want to emphasize, then I think that if you took the shot with less sky and more water, that would help accomplish that. If you had 1/3 sky and 2/3 water, you could see more of the reflections and see less of the plain sky, which is not adding much to the picture. In general, putting the horizon in the middle of the image is not ideal.

I do agree that the colors are more interesting than the skyline, but they are not quite compelling enough to hold my interest for too long. I find my eye meandering over the image, enjoying the colors but not really drawn to any particular reflection. Too bad there is no one reflection that stands out to really draw the viewer's attention.