Hawaii Landscapes & Changing Weather

[ShaneS]

I was out and about this weekend with the camera despite some dodgy weather and I was rewarded to a variety of scenes to share with you for critique...

One thing that locals learn is the the weather can change quite quickly as you will see by this progression of shots.

I was actually headed out to shoot a tree that I spied last weekend and though that the diffused light from the overcast sky would enhance a black and white image. The light wasn't diffuse it was downright flat so I drove on down the road about 10 minutes and as I crested the hill there was the most beautiful rainbow that I had seen in some time. I decided that I would try to capture it and pulled over into the local beach park. None of the rainbow shots turn out so I battled a cap in the wind and some passing showers to capture this scene:

Mount Olomana is shrouded in mist/fog in the background and I really liked the silhouette that it created. I like the addition of the building here but wonder about the foreground rocks.



A short 15 minutes later looking in the opposite direction I captured Rabbit and Turtle Islets off the coast. My intent was to use the tidal pools as foreground interest and leading lines towards the islands and off to the left where I think that the composition leads the eye naturally.



I then moved along another 10 or 15 minutes down the coast to Waimanalo Beach where I found my own tropical island a little over an hour later at 10AM. It is actually a bird sanctuary but I don't mind sharing...



I will post another wider version of this shot in another thread as I have two different versions and want to keep the C&C a little easier. If anyone thinks that I should post only one image in each thread in the future for that reason I would be happy to do that just let me know.

Any and all C&C would be greatly appreciated.

[Shadowman]

Very nice. Although your horizons are all almost centered, there is enough in the composition to make the eyes wander. Not sure what the subject is in the first, the cove, mountain, and house all are wanting of attention. I like the second image best, I'd work on the clouds a bit to add a bit of contrast between the sky and landmass. Third image, perhaps a tighter crop.

[pnodrog]

I am surprised nobody has commented sooner but I suppose it is a few hours since I spotted these photographs and then wandered off to do something else.

I find them all interesting but from a "pictorial" point of view (I know what I mean by "pictorial" even if no one else does..) the middle one is my pick. The setting of the first one is very interesting but the saturation is just a bit high for me and the last one could benefit from a bit of cropping both top and bottom - mainly off the bottom for me but you will no doubt get a host of opinions on what will be best.

P.S. I see John sneaked in while I was writing mine and as I suspected suggests a crop on the third one. - I must have a crystal ball.

[IzzieK]

Shane...These are all beautiful spots you had chose to photograph...Contrary to LPaul and John, I like #1. The sky is very dramatically portrayed. It will benefit from a little crop at the bottom I believe...not too much but I like the rocks there as your foreground.

#2 is nice too. I like the little curve of the water at the right. The same s #1, it will benefit from a little crop at the bottom and the last one I concur with John and LPaul...need a tighter crop. Overall, I like them all...nice views. #3 is like postcard...love where you live...

[Stagecoach]

Hi Shane,

Here's my perspective but if I was you I would not take the view of a bug shooter too seriously

No 1, Not sure if it needs the rocks in the foreground, or maybe just a bit on the right? I'm used to these scenes where the weather is changing so obviously and fast.

No 2, Now this was an opportunity to get low with a wider angle possibly.

No 3, Love this one with half the water cropped, nothing else removed.

Grahame

[Donald]

Shane - Not viewing on my own monitor so want comment on things liem saturation. In terms of composition:

In the first one, I'd wonder about losing the foreground rocks and cropping to a 16:9 ration so that the water forms the bottom part of the frame. I think that also enhances the expansiveness of the scene. Otherwise, I think it's a greay composition.

On the third one, I wonder about a crop from the top to, again, go more panoramic and put the horizon onto the top horizontal thirds line.

[Mike Buckley]

I am so thrilled with the photo of the island in your other thread that I can't get as excited about any of these. Of these three, I like the first one best and agree with you that the foreground rocks get in the way. I would also crop a lot off the right side to move the house closer to that side of the frame.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Shane,I like your shots very much

#1 I would crop the rocks at the bottom

#2 I would live as it is

#3 I wouldn't crop from the bottom,because the changing colour of sea is very nice but I would crop from the top because there is nothing interesting in the sky and It goes well with 1/3 rule when you crop it.

[Brownbear]

Hi Shane,

#2 is my favourite... beautiful! Followed by #3 with some of the water cropped as suggested by Grahame. The scene in the first image is beautiful and I like the composition but the rocks and land feel a little heavy (saturated or bright?) to me.

[FrankMi]

Hi Shane, I usually prefer to retain detail in the foreground for this kind of a scene but for the first I think that Donald and the others recommending cropping just above the rocks are spot on as you have very good detail in the water just above the rocks and five 'bands' of scenery aren't needed to make this image great. I also agree with removing some of the sky as after the rocks are removed, the rest of the scene would ride very low in the frame and would leave you with too much negative space above the mountains. On my monitor, the building looks a bit washed out so I might play with dropping the brightness just there.

For the second shot, it is rare for a centered horizon to work really well so you might want to play with cropping either the top or the bottom of the image. Cropping the top will pull the viewer closer into the scene and cropping the bottom would make the scene appear more distant so it would be an artistic choice. Same thing for the third image.

Commenting on one image is less time consuming so folks tend to provide more scene-specific feedback than when there are multiple images posted. Multiple images can work well when you are looking for either/or and why responses or when you provide before and after post processing images and are looking for PP techniques.

[ShaneS]

Thank you all for taking the time to comment...you guys had me pondering this on and off all day today!

Seems like the consensus is that the second image is the winner of the group as is which is understandable. Many suggested an alternate crop but fiddling around this evening didn't get me very far. I was as low to the ground as I could get without risking the camera getting wet and any crop that maintains the 16:9 aspect ration loses too much of the foreground tide pools which I like and I have no more sky to play with to move the horizon to one of the thirds. Good thing this is close to home so I can try, try again

On the third image there was the most agreement about losing a good portion of the foreground water and I won't bore you by re-posting a revised version that meets those criteria but I do agree with the advice.

Lastly is seems like the first image had the most people wanting to like it more but that something was just off. I have reworked the image into two very different versions based on your thoughts.

First here is a 16:9 version with the foreground rocks eliminated along with a fair bit of the sky above Mount Olomana where I have also reduced the saturation that bothered a couple of folks. I played around a bit with the house and still can't quite get it to pop...



The next version is a black & white version putting the house on the far left and eliminating the mountain completely. Looking at it again just now it looks like the dark rocks could use a bit of a lift int he shadows but I will wait to hear your thoughts on the image before I tackle any further edits.



Thank again everyone! All of your feedback goes into my back pocket and it often pops back into my head when I am out shooting. I find that to be invaluable and appreciate it more than you know