What lies beneath

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Here is a interesting question, how do you to take a photo? or more to the point how do you achieve your artistic vision?
For me i have bundles of images bouncing around in my head and never once have I had one come out on the screen just how my mind imagined 🙂 Someone asked me the other day, 'how do you see the images you take'? my first thought was, stuffed if I know 🙂 but it got me thinking.

With that in mind I went out the other day for a dabble of photography and 'cause i love getting up at silly hours and explaining to fisherman that yes..i am just taking photos..anyway digress.. so I thought how do i 'see' a image the best I could come up with a simple fact that I see different elements in a scene then somehow i try and meld those elements into the constraint of a portrait or landscape (or pano) shot…

In any case I am still no closer to answering that question and to be honest, i think i like simply going out and mindlessly taking shots 😉 and often i end up with the most pleasing images (for me anyway) this way.

Anyway, in this image i really like these cool jetty/boat ramp posts that were partially submerged and that formed the basis for the composition, everything else was simply constrained by the light or by distracting elements outside of the visible frame 🙂

This is a manually blended image to achieve the dynamic range of the water in the foreground and the horizon brightness..

techie love:
D7000 coupled with Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @ Aperture: f/8 and Shutter Speed: 69.9s and 30s
out front – LEE graduated filter 0.9 and screw in circular polariser

As always, I welcome any suggestions, comments and improvements to my photography, they are always warmly welcomed. Maybe with this one crop from the bottom a fraction?

62 thoughts on “What lies beneath”

  7. +Gerard Blacklock, great capture and processing. On the crop, I think this works great to highlight the jetty within the landscape. You could gain an alternate focus with some some geometric decay by a crop where those beams go into the water cropping so they come from bottom corners. Cheers.

  19. Hi +Gerard Blacklock, very nice work!
    I agree with +Ben Wesley about the corner crop. Also, my mind is left wondering, why is the corner of the jetty and the ramp on the left hand side cropped out? Was there a distracting element? Was it possible to get that corner into the shot?
    I too find that planned shots don't work out in most cases. I have only been happy with one so far 🙂 In most cases I don't even bother pressing the shutter once I have the planned composition, simply because the conditions are not what I had envisioned before. But walk a few metres – Bang! There is a shot to be proud of.
    I am sure you don't mindlessly take shots, Gerry. I bet you see a scene, compose it (maybe in your head before you set up the camera), think about how you would post process, and then shoot accordingly. That's not mindless.
    Example given in this very shot!
    I love that you are blending your images manually. It's the only way to get completely natural results for dynamic range.
    The colours and tones are superb. I love this shot! Very very nice.

  35. G'day +Hendrik Ebber thankyou very much for the comment and feedback.
    Regarding the corner of the jetty on the left and it being slightly cutouff, i did this because this is where the outshooting jetty attachs to a sailing club building which (for me) when included in say a landscape orientation leads the view off to the left of the image and takes the viewer away from the foreground, particularly the bit on the right. I do have a landscape version which I will visit and just confirm that this is the case.
    I am glad I am not the only one who seems not to achieve those preplanned compositions 🙂
    I guess mindless was a poor choice of word, I think its just more of a factor that I am not overly concentrating on achieving all the rules and simply letting what I see transpire into the camera rather then trying to use a formula to generate the image (that's not very clear but i hope it explains it a bit better), obviously there is that pre element of looking for interesting foreground and cool skies and trying to meld them together:)

    Regarding the manual blending, i did initially do the lazy mans option of use HDRefex2 but found that it just did not achieve the scene I wanted and as such moved to manually blend parts a two exposures..over the last 6 months or so I am finding the manual blending much more pleasing and giving me complete control of the dynamic range in the image and as such I can use that range to recreate the mood i saw with my eyes.
    again, thanks for the feedback mate.

  39. +Gerard Blacklock Thanks man, I am finally getting the method worked out so will be doing a lot more especially through the cooler months. I have plenty of inspiration from guys like you and will start tagging your theme as well. 😉

  41. Agree with Hendrik – I think the difference between a 'mature' photographer and a beginner is the beginner just goes out and takes a 'lot' of shots, unsure of how any will turn out, a 'mature' tog takes lots of shots aware of how most will turn out, composing and exposing for how they will post process, crop, share, print – all in the moments around the shot. Good example here Gerard…

  43. +Gary P Hayes Photography
    very true, I would like to think I have moved past the shotgun method just have not managed to gain a realisation of whats in my head and what ends up on the back of the camera 🙂 well to level that I am happy with anyway .
    Thanks for the comment and view mate.

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