RESULTS: Mini Challenge #347 "Big Bodies of Water"

sarasphotos

This was really difficult, as I found every single shot a winner, each telling a specific story. Wow.

@JAG My favorite of your three is the first one - the proverbial "calm before the storm". I really liked the composition and the way you captured the light on what I suspect was a tough exposure. One comment/question - could it be that your horizon is slightly un-level or is that my eye? And I appreciate the fact that you caught that rainbow in #2!

@ pegelli The first picture of your three (Gone fishing) was also my favorite. Great mood - you could tell that fisherman was watching for weather changes and weighing his odds for a good catch.
For me, your 2nd picture was more about the boats than the body of water and although I like the third picture - proving that many shades of grey can make a very interesting composition, but it had a look that I'm not accustomed to from you - there was so much texture in the clouds it almost didn't look real. Were they really so heavily detailed or was that a Lightroom slider? :-)

@grandmaR wow - really great detail in that digitized slide from 1965! I love how you can really see down into the ocean floor there along the cliffs. The second shot reminded me of the watercolors my husband is now painting - subtle washes of color from top to bottom. I also enjoyed seeing the water/weather phenomenon in #3 - I had no idea that could happen!

@GSPeP What I like about all three of your shots is that in each photo you really get the feeling of the vastness of the large body of water, exactly the point in this mini. My favorite is the 2nd picture - the way the sea fades into nothingness and the Mulberry harbor makes an break in the great expanse of the ocean. But what really makes the shot zing for me is the couple taking a walk in the foreground. They are so teeny and immediately reminded me of how small we humans are compared to the enormity of nature.

@Cavalier I loved all three of these shots, although I though the first one was slightly more about the birds than about the water. (A great shot, nevertheless!) I am most fond of shot #3 - I like the how you've captured the detail of those rocks in the foreground, beaten down by centuries of exposure to the mighty surf. (I also liked it because it brought back memories of standing on a spot that surely wasn't far from there on a trip in 2011.)

@sapphire73 Three wonderful pictures! The first shot with the fog rising and the reflection of the rocks is spectacular and I love the Big Sur coast shot as well. What a stroke of luck that you were even able to pass through.

So, the winners are...

2nd Place
@sapphire73 for 1) Piha Beach (2011, North Island of New Zealand)

1st Place
@GSPeP for 2) France, Normany. Arromanches-Les-Bains (North Sea)

Have fun Peter - I can't wait to see what you come up with.

Thanks to all for entering!

JAG

@sarasphotos Sara, thank you for the comments and a nicely run challenge. Congratulations to @GSPeP for the win and @sapphire73 for the runner up! Kudos to all who entered, they all are worthy entries!

Sara, as for the horizon, it's an optical illusion that you are seeing in the image. The land is what makes the horizon look off as it goes in a off looking direction. I had lined the actual horizon in my view finder using the horizontal line in the finder.

sarasphotos

@JAG said:

Sara, as for the horizon, it's an optical illusion that you are seeing in the image.

That's why I asked - sometimes our eyes can deceive us. Great shot!

pegelli

Congratulations to @GSPeP for winning this mini and @sapphire73 for 2nd place. And thanks to @sarasphotos for a well run and interesting mini with ample commenting on all the entries.
And yes, the sky in my third shot got some ectra "clarity" treatment in Lightroom to bring out the light rays, but I agree it makes the clouds look "overdone"

And I think Sara's eyes were not deceiving her @JAG. I downloaded your image and drew a horizontal white line in it in using photoshop and that shows that indeed the horizon is slightly tilting to the left.

See here:

sapphire73

Thank you, Sara for the enjoyable mini and all of your comments. Congratulations, @GSPeP on winning this mini! Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for the next one! And thank you, @sarasphotos for second place. Friends took us to that beach one afternoon, and I was glad I had my camera with me. And yes, I was glad we were able to go part way into Big Sur from the north.

Thanks to everyone who participated. I enjoyed seeing all of the photos.

JAG

@pegelli what you are seeing is the natural curve that some lenses to because we are not on a flat world. LOL

GSPeP

Thanks to @sarasphotos for a the interesting mini and selecting me as winner.

I'll try to post the new mini today, latest this evening (Belgian time).

grandmaR

A fun mini with a lot of different ways of photographing water. Thank you Sara for the detailed comments.