Walking on Water

[FootLoose]

Late afternoon at the beach... warm day ... lengthening shadows. The reflections seduced my eye, and I have tried to make something of them in processing.
C&C welcome.


Slippery Water_M8A3208 copy by Foot Loose2012, on Flickr

[Shadowman]

Nice concept.

[NorthernFocus]

Well seen and captured.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Greg,

I 'get' the processing aim (and result), but feel compelled to suggest that, particularly given the 'Slippery_Water' image title, if it has to slope, shouldn't it be down hill for the subject's direction of travel?

Cheers, Dave

[mugge]

I like the picture well enough but, as Dave suggest, perhaps it would be better if the slope was reversed. Having fun. Like the concept though.
Cheers Ole

[JamesScott86]

That is beautiful! Excellent Shot!!!

[FootLoose]

Hi Greg,

I 'get' the processing aim (and result), but feel compelled to suggest that, particularly given the 'Slippery_Water' image title, if it has to slope, shouldn't it be down hill for the subject's direction of travel?

Cheers, Dave

Dave,
I'm not sure I understand your question. The ocean is on the left of frame. The waves roll in and wash up the beach to the right of frame, then drain back to the ocean on the left. The beach slopes upwards - to the right of frame - away from the water. [There is a horizontal reference at the top of the frame that I have cropped out because of deep shadow but the frame is level.] I could flip it horizontally but the boy would still be walking up-hill.

I can 'level' it so that it appears to have a horizontal 'horizon' relative to the frame - but it looks a bit odd to me:


Maybe beaches here a different to beaches in your part of the world?

[John 2]

Interesting concept and well seen for me. I like that the subject is walking towards the figures in the distance. Might prefer a little more room at the top if it's there but a nice shot.

[chauncey]

IMHO, that scene deserves a re-shoot with the "walker" being farther from the shore line,
maybe moving the camera to get more pleasing reflections before introducing the walker.

[Dave Humphries]

I'm not sure I understand your question. The ocean is on the left of frame. The waves roll in and wash up the beach to the right of frame, then drain back to the ocean on the left. The beach slopes upwards - to the right of frame - away from the water. [There is a horizontal reference at the top of the frame that I have cropped out because of deep shadow but the frame is level.] I could flip it horizontally but the boy would still be walking up-hill.

I can 'level' it so that it appears to have a horizontal 'horizon' relative to the frame - but it looks a bit odd to me:

Hi Greg,

Even without a horizontal reference, standing water and the reflections in it give a good vertical reference; in other words, the boy's body and its reflection ought to be vertically aligned, as they pretty much are in this version. (given that standing water will self-level)

Now obviously, I didn't appreciate the 'lie of the land' (beach) which you have now explained.
Also, I don't know how much slope there is on the beach, but all that water looked to me to be standing, rather than moving in or receding (as waves), so I was using that to determine levelness. Of course, it is possible the processing might be what destroyed the normal visual cues of moving water. It is also possible it is super-saturated sand and is that wet and on a significant slope we saw in the original.

So, as you were there and I was not, you may well be correct, I was just saying how it looked to me.

My (flippant?) comment about the direction of the 'hill' made reference to the image name and that when I'm moving on a slippery surface, I found going up is safer than going down and therefore, to my mind, he should be seen to be going down a slope, not up one (as it turns out he was!) Guess I read too much in to the image name, my bad.


Humour me; suspending reality - if you get the images in LyteBox and switch between them alternately a few times (with left and right arrow keys), which looks 'correct' as a pure photograph?

I prefer the new version.

Cheers, Dave

[bnnrcn]

Nice colors and reflections Greg

[Geoff F]

As an alternative to the rotation, Greg, try a closer crop with a 4 x 5 ratio or square to lose some of the right side.

[FootLoose]

Thank you to everyone for your helpful comments.

Dave, thanks for taking the time to explain your observation to me. I agree with you that - as a picture viewed without reference to its physical location - it does look better when it is levelled. Although, that changes the nature of the scene as the water then looks like it is lying still and therefore is stagnant. I didn't mean to imply that when I used the term 'slippery'.

The image was shot at low tide, with the waves washing up the beach and then 'immediately' receding, which meant that the reflections were fleeting. As the boy walked across the sand, the outgoing water was clinging to his feet and dripping off them, which gave me the impression that he was walking across an oil painting and the paint was sticking to his feet - and that is why I thought of the water as slippery (oily).

I think for 'artistic' purposes, I will rotate it to a point somewhere between the two posted above. The reflection should appear more vertical and the water shouldn't look stagnant.

John, I agree a little more headroom would be nice. But there is an ugly concrete wall in the background which is in deep shadow. If I lighten the shadow, the wall becomes more visible; if I darken it, it looks like a black vignette across the top of the frame.

Chauncey, I know what you are saying, but he was just a kid on the beach - and some distance away at that - I couldn't direct him where to walk for my picture.

[IzzieK]

I love the reflection too and what a good capture this is..sorry for being late in responding. Will be more active from tomorrow when we get home and get rested...

[FootLoose]

I have taken everyone's comments into consideration and made the vertical lines in the reflection a bit more vertical, and enlarged the size of the crop. The larger frame doesn't feel quite so cramped at the top to me, and it also brings in more of the reflection - which is the subject of the image.

Slippery Water_Levelled_Large Crop_M8A3208 copy by Foot Loose2012, on Flickr