9:55am, Ainster Harbour

[Donald]

Sharon (Daisy Mae) - Guess where I was this morning!

This one is quite a bit busier than things I've been doing recently. But as I wandered around the beautiful fishing villages in the North East Corner of county of Fife this morning, this scene caught and held my attention.

So, a question is - Is to too busy? Another question is about that mast going right through the frame from top to bottom. My first reaction was 'No, that won't work'. But then it started to feel okay and I ended up feeling that it promoted the connection between the seas and the land, which is what these villages are all about.

But your thoughts would be welcomed. You might want to click on it to see it larger in the lightbox.

Ps - For those who note the Exif info at the bottom. Why those figures? Wind. There was a very strong wind blowing and I needed a fast shutter speed.


40D, 70-200mm f/4L IS @ 70mm. ISO400. 1/1500@f8.

[Carl in Louisiana]

Hey Donald,

As always a great shot! Love all the different tones! Not too busy for me, I like it, it keeps me looking! I don't mind the mast going from top to bottom, I would like to have seen more of the boats and a little less sky, I think, that could be because I like boats....but then again the sky just seems to fit right in with everything else.

[Plumcrak]

Donald, Great tonal range but for me, the mast going from top to bottom is a distraction, but I am easily distracted. Everything else works really well for me.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Donald,

Usually we wouldn't get away with that mast, as you say, but I see two things that help;
the angle of the ropes to the mast head is duplicated on the left by the roof of the clock tower
there are a couple of other similar masts on the right which satisfy curiosity as to what is at the top.

It is a very busy scene too, but that just seems to give us more to look at.

Cheers,

[mammarazzi]

Love it, Donald........its really beautiful

[FrankMi]

This is a view to explore, to imagine walking up the ramp, around the dockside, and into the various shops. Not everything needs to be shown, I can imagine the top of the mast but it is more difficult to imagine the lower docks so I think I would like to have seen a little more at the bottom.

[Donald]

Thanks for your comments folks.

The not-so-good bit is that I've just got in from being out all day and learn (from Sharon - DaisyMae) that a school of pilot whales have today, beached themselves just along the coast from where I took this yesterday. The latest update on BBC News website is saying that 20 of them seem to have dies.

[Karm Redland]

These types of villages always have a strong sense of compression and chaos from the buildings being against each other and being near the water and the village's fishing boats. I think your photograph nicely captures this sense for me. I agree with one of the comments about getting more of the fishing boats into your picture. This would add to what I'm talking about. I think the sky works against the overall sense of the picture. The mast you reference I think adds to the picture's chaotic quality which I think is a good thing.

[pnodrog]

At the size it come up on my screen it was a bit to busy and looked over sharpened. However when I clicked on it and looked at it at the larger size it looked great. It is busy but with lots of interesting details and shapes to study. Mast was not a problem for me but as I used to have a small keeler I am very forgiving regarding boats. Good tonal range suits the grade 4 paper - oops! sorry about the time travel.

[Steve S]

I think it works very well donald. I love the clock tower, which anchors the image very well. The business signs are very appealing . Very busy, but lots of interesting things to look at.

[kaneohebud]

Donald:
Initially I was distracted by the mast and all the rigging in the shot. However, after looking at it for a bit, the overall sharpness of the buildings and clarity of the picture really come out. One's focus is drawn into the picture as it should be. Well done.

[Donald]

Karm, Paul, Steve, Bud - Thank you for taking the time to comment.

As I was working on this one I was feeling - It's one that poeple are either going to like or not because of how busy it is.

The idea behind not including the boats so much and just concentrating on the masts was about making this an iamge of the village. What I mean by that is that if I had included the boats, then I think the main subject would have become them, with the village being the backdrop, whereas, what I wanted the image to be about was the village, with the boats being the supporting 'act'. So, the image tells us that the boats are there, but that the stars of the show are the buildings in the village.

Hope that makes some sort of sense. That was my reasoning anyway!

[gaijin]

Yes, too many masty things for me and yachty masty things at that! Didn't get the smell of the fish 'n' chips either, but that's probably just as well. I wonder, though, if there are people the world over trying to find out where this place Ainster is on the Fife coast! Perhaps best if you don't try publishing a photo of Kilconquhar.