California Coast Fun

kdog · March 15, 2014

I've been inspired by all the great Northern California seascape pictures being posted here lately and thought I'd join in the fun. Here's a small selection of shots from last weekend.

1

2

3

4

Comments and critiques welcome and thanks for looking.

-joel

ian408 · March 15, 2014

Some really nice shots!

David_S85 · March 15, 2014

So that's where you ran off to! Looks like it was worth it because the pics are great.

kdog · March 15, 2014

ian408 wrote: »

Some really nice shots!

Thanks, Ian!

David_S85 wrote: »

So that's where you ran off to! Looks like it was worth it because the pics are great.

Which time?

Thanks, David!

denisegoldberg · March 15, 2014

Gorgeous! The first two are my favorites.

--- Denise

Sam · March 15, 2014

Number two is my favorite! Nicely done.

Sam

T H O R · March 15, 2014

This is a very nice set indeed. However In that last photo, I think if you were to crop out the top to get rid of that Brightspot in the sky it would make for a more soothing photograph to the eyes. Since the foreground does a good job of leading your eye into the scene, you don't really need that much sky to make a good photograph. They are all nice photographs and number two is my favorite as well.

Todd

boco · March 16, 2014

mooi en ga voor zwart/wit.
grt, boco.

Eia · March 16, 2014

Beautiful comp and color in number one, but oh the drama in number two! Wish we could see your exif and how you processed?

Wiren · March 16, 2014

Hmmmm
#3 would have to be my fave, really great. #1 is too saturated for my taste. And while I like the DOF and textures in 2, it has too much of an HDR look to me....but that spot, man, I bet you could get some from time to time with some major drama... I think that's what I like most about this shot, the drama...

#3 has great water pattern... not fond of the clouds, but hey, you didn't pick-em...

#4 ain't too bad, but I can't stop looking at the water spot in the left of the frame...

Anyways, neat stuff, I wonder what they would look like with some different, non-hdr-ish style processing.

Cool stuff and looks like an awesome locale....

Earache · March 17, 2014

Super work Joel!
Personally, I can find many *realistic* landscapes to view online and many are very nice...
But, I really like these stylistic deviations as an alternative to the ordinary - there's room for both I think.
#2 is one of those interpretations that gets-it for me... a view into an alternate reality.

CatOne · March 17, 2014

LOVE the first shot. I like the processing and you really did a great job getting the color out of the ice plant. Especially with the flowers. It's well balanced and keeps your eye in the frame. I might like to have just a bit more of the cliffs in the picture, though; maybe if the camera had been 6" higher? Small quibble

I really love the sense of motion in the second shot. The water brings you right to the front of the frame and then loops you along the bottom, up the right, and back into the sky. The processing of it feels a wee bit too "overcooked" for me though in terms of toned HDR: I think the sky looks a bit over-compressed to me. In the same way that it grabs me and brings me in, after about 10 seconds the look starts to become a bit "overcooked" to me. Still, there's huge potential in this image and a few different processing takes may come up with something I'd prefer (though maybe you wouldn't; horses for courses :-) )

kdog · March 18, 2014

denisegoldberg wrote: »

Gorgeous! The first two are my favorites.

--- Denise

Thanks, Denise!

Sam wrote: »

Number two is my favorite! Nicely done.

Sam

Thank you, Sam!

T H O R wrote: »

This is a very nice set indeed. However In that last photo, I think if you were to crop out the top to get rid of that Brightspot in the sky it would make for a more soothing photograph to the eyes. Since the foreground does a good job of leading your eye into the scene, you don't really need that much sky to make a good photograph. They are all nice photographs and number two is my favorite as well.

Todd

Thanks very much, Todd. And thanks for the cropping idea.

boco wrote: »

mooi en ga voor zwart/wit.
grt, boco.

Thanks, boco. The zwart/wit one seems to be the favorite here.

Eia wrote: »

Beautiful comp and color in number one, but oh the drama in number two! Wish we could see your exif and how you processed?

Thanks, Eia! EXIF is in all my images. Processing was a single image HDR via Nik. I wasn't too sure about the colors, so converted to B&W in Nik Silver EFX.

Wiren wrote: »

#3 would have to be my fave, really great. #1 is too saturated for my taste. And while I like the DOF and textures in 2, it has too much of an HDR look to me....but that spot, man, I bet you could get some from time to time with some major drama... I think that's what I like most about this shot, the drama...

#3 has great water pattern... not fond of the clouds, but hey, you didn't pick-em...

#4 ain't too bad, but I can't stop looking at the water spot in the left of the frame...

Anyways, neat stuff, I wonder what they would look like with some different, non-hdr-ish style processing.

Cool stuff and looks like an awesome locale....

Thanks for the thoughtful critiques, Lee. I realize the pushed-processing isn't for everyone. I don't see the water spot on #4

.

Earache wrote: »

Super work Joel!
Personally, I can find many *realistic* landscapes to view online and many are very nice...
But, I really like these stylistic deviations as an alternative to the ordinary - there's room for both I think.
#2 is one of those interpretations that gets-it for me... a view into an alternate reality.

Thanks so much, Eric. As always, you have such an eloquent way of putting into words what I'm trying to accomplish in my pictures. When I go big, I shall hire you to write my marketing materials.

CatOne wrote: »

LOVE the first shot. I like the processing and you really did a great job getting the color out of the ice plant. Especially with the flowers. It's well balanced and keeps your eye in the frame. I might like to have just a bit more of the cliffs in the picture, though; maybe if the camera had been 6" higher? Small quibble

I really love the sense of motion in the second shot. The water brings you right to the front of the frame and then loops you along the bottom, up the right, and back into the sky. The processing of it feels a wee bit too "overcooked" for me though in terms of toned HDR: I think the sky looks a bit over-compressed to me. In the same way that it grabs me and brings me in, after about 10 seconds the look starts to become a bit "overcooked" to me. Still, there's huge potential in this image and a few different processing takes may come up with something I'd prefer (though maybe you wouldn't; horses for courses :-) )

Hi, Bill! I appreciate your keen eye and thoughtful comments. The camera position on the first one was a trade-off between getting the details in the ice-plant and being high enough to take in the beach and cliffs. I do have ones with a higher camera position that I might revisit now that you mention it.

This thread has shown folks go both ways on the HDRish look in #2. To me, it balances out the surreal look of water that the moderately long shutter produced. However, I did that fairly hastily and would have no problem trying different was of processing it. You're right, one could spend a lot of time playing this image. Revisiting the processing of photos is always on my mind, yet I rarely find the time to do it for some reason.

Wiren · March 18, 2014

water spot
Maybe it's my screen, or maybe it's just me.....

Almost smack dab in the middle of the rock formation on the left of the image.... kind of in a dark spot... there is a slightly transparent, rainbow collored spot... I don't think this is lensflare, but rather a small water spot that caught the light creating the rainbowing within the spot itself. I could be wrong and it is sunflare, but it doesn't look like it to me.

Still don't see it....?, sit up higher in your chair... get a slightly different view of your screen from above your normal eyeline... or play around with contrast/brightness in your pp software.... i'll try to do it tonight and post a clearer vision of what i'm seeing.

Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it as nobody else but me seems to be seeing it....., guess I better go take my meds.....

Lee

JonaBeth Russell · March 18, 2014

Quite beautiful, thanks for sharing!

kdog · March 18, 2014

Wiren wrote: »

Maybe it's my screen, or maybe it's just me.....

Almost smack dab in the middle of the rock formation on the left of the image.... kind of in a dark spot... there is a slightly transparent, rainbow collored spot... I don't think this is lensflare, but rather a small water spot that caught the light creating the rainbowing within the spot itself. I could be wrong and it is sunflare, but it doesn't look like it to me.

Still don't see it....?, sit up higher in your chair... get a slightly different view of your screen from above your normal eyeline... or play around with contrast/brightness in your pp software.... i'll try to do it tonight and post a clearer vision of what i'm seeing.

Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it as nobody else but me seems to be seeing it....., guess I better go take my meds.....

Lee

Good eye, Lee. There does seem to be something weird going on there, like a small area of color distortion. All the colors are in that rock and no new colors introduced, so probably not lens flare, although I wouldn't swear to that. A water spot is a good guess. Thanks for ruining my night. :giggle

Earache · March 18, 2014

Wiren wrote: »

Maybe it's my screen, or maybe it's just me.....

Almost smack dab in the middle of the rock formation on the left of the image.... kind of in a dark spot... there is a slightly transparent, rainbow collored spot... I don't think this is lensflare, but rather a small water spot that caught the light creating the rainbowing within the spot itself. I could be wrong and it is sunflare, but it doesn't look like it to me.

Still don't see it....?, sit up higher in your chair... get a slightly different view of your screen from above your normal eyeline... or play around with contrast/brightness in your pp software.... i'll try to do it tonight and post a clearer vision of what i'm seeing.

Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it as nobody else but me seems to be seeing it....., guess I better go take my meds.....

Lee

I see it - although I might never have, had you not mentioned it...

Not a deal breaker for me... but, as we all know, once seen - never unseen.

I'm willing to bet it is lens flare, because it looks like there was still some strong areas of light in the sky - but I'm not willing to bet much 'cause I'm often mildly wrong!!

FlyNavy · March 18, 2014

Wow! Very nice work.

Wiren · March 18, 2014

sorry....

kdog wrote: »

Good eye, Lee. There does seem to be something weird going on there, like a small area of color distortion. All the colors are in that rock and no new colors introduced, so probably not lens flare, although I wouldn't swear to that. A water spot is a good guess. Thanks for ruining my night. :giggle

Like I said.... maybe I shouldn't have said anything at all... I hate spoiling somebody's evening.....:(:

It really does look like lens flare, but I have had shoots at the coast and plenty of waterfalls where one small spot of water will hit the glass and the heavier end of the drop will catch the ambient sunlight and give a compressed, oval shaped flare effect, which is what this looks like..... but I can't be too sure, maybe it is just a sun-flare.

Either way, it's hard to spot and certainly doesn't ruin the image.... both of these are pretty damn cool.

Lee

kdog · March 18, 2014

Lee, I was joking about having my night ruined! I'm thankful that you found that spot and flattered that you studied the image closely enough to see it. Please don't ever hesitate to offer your critiques on my images. Thanks!

PrevailingConditions · March 22, 2014

I'm clearly the odd duck here, but I like the last one the best. The lighter area of the sky doesn't bother me at all and I like how the surf leads in and around the rocks.

Stumblebum · April 7, 2014

The violence of #2 is mind blowing

(...can't think of better word....should stop drinking....)! Hope you are well bro! Cheers!