I think I am finally getting a little better on light metering and exposure times. (well, on one out of every 100 shots - lol). These two photos are untouched in photoshop except for the framing treatment.

These are both from Orchard Beach State Park, near Manistee Michigan.

Comments and criticism welcome.

[Andrew Faires]

Both of these are excellent!

[Peter Zack]

They are both great shots but the second is a fantastic shot with the kids running into the frame. Very well captured! Otherwise it would be another well exposed sunset.

[Rener]

WOW!!!, lovely shots, what combo if you won't mind?

Cheers,

Rene R

[vinzer]

Both are nice, but the second one is simply astounding. You should print that large, frame it, and hang it on your living room wall.

[The Pentax Hammer]

Thanks guys!

The second was kind of a fluke... My buddy Don and I were both waiting for the sunset, cameras in hand, as our wives chatted nearby. We saw two kids running down the beach and Don and I both just grabbed our cameras and fired off a couple quick shots, without having time to compose. Luckily our cameras were set up for the sunset anyway. All luck!

Rene, The comb was just the K10D and the kit lens that came with it. Settings on the first photo are ISO 100, F 9.5, 1/90 second, aperture priority mode. The second photo was ISO 100, F 8, 1/125 second, AP mode again.

[pdmlmember]

Personally I like the first one the best, nice lines. The second one suffers from a strange horizon, but the light is very nice.

[kjask]

Very nice shots, Gary!

[roentarre]

Beautiful Beach.

[slip]

both are great shots!
I give the first one the slight edge

cheers

randy

[SCGushue]

Gary,


These are beautiful pictures. Simply beautiful. I put them up on my monitor this morning and have been so busy with work that I have spent hours viewing them when I had a free moment.

Great tones, color and use of available light.

Stephen

[Eddie]

Love those! I plan on getting some shots this winter of the shore in South Haven. Hopefully get some nice lighthouse shots too.

[The Pentax Hammer]

Thanks everyone!

Maggie, I'm always trying to learn from my mistakes. I really appreciate your honesty about the second photo suffering from the horizon. Could you please describe what makes the horizon terrible. I'd love to be able to correct this in future photos.

I usually try to nit-pick my photos way more that I do photos from other people. In my photo I see a slightly tilted horizon (but I don't think that is what you were referring to). I see slightly washed out color... but I didn't adjust anything in Photoshop. Maybe I should have. I see the photo is terrible for the horizon not following the "rule of thirds". I see the haze above the lake in the bottom third of the sky, but that was because most of the day the weather was humid and completely covered by clouds. I do wish the sky was clear to the horizon. I know the kids are out of focus, and I'm surprised that nobody has laughed at how bad that looks. I hate it! The reflections on the water block how blue-green the water actually was. This really sucks! I wish the beach sand was smooth in the foreground. I wish the sky was bluer. These are just a few of the many things I have figured out wrong with this shot... and want to watch out for these things in the future. Please clue me in on what you see bad on the horizon too!

Don't even get me started on what I don't like about the first photo... the list is a lot longer.

Thanks again for your honesty!

[Peter Zack]

IMHO I'll add a little to this commentary. Of course take it all with a grain of salt as this CC thing is very subjective unless the shot in question is just technically flawed all over (which I don't feel this one is).
1) Yes the horizon is slightly crooked but not so much that it is readily noticeable and can easily be corrected.
2) The colour might be a little light and you could add to that by increasing the saturation a little but only a little because the image has a great natural look to it and you don't want to make the sky look too blue.
3) "rule of thirds" is a guideline IMO. Doesn't have to be a measured criteria and the horizon does not cut the picture in half. I think this shot needs more foreground (IE don't cut much of what you already have out) and I think all the footprints in the sand help it a lot. You could crop it a little differently but the wide expanse and the kids on the extreme left make this work for me.
4) sky is clear enough for me. Until we start parking our cars and shutting off all the furnaces and air conditioners a little haze will be a fact of life.
5) as for the kids "out of focus" I would say this is why the shot works. As I said earlier this could just be another ordinary sunset shot. They are not out of focus. Why? The sand in the foreground is sharp and the water/wave in the background is sharp. The camera captured 'motion blur' due to a slower shutter speed. Why do I really like this effect? Look at the wave breaking on the beach. It's in sharp focus. The kids are not. So you hit the shutter speed that caught both perfectly. If the wave showed motion blur I think it would hurt the shot. If the kids were frozen it may still look good but would be a very different shot. In this regard I would not change this aspect in any way. Mixed with all the footprints shows me an active beach with some action. For me it works.
5) Sky Blue? maybe and you can add a touch more to that if you want in PP. To get the greener water you would have had to over expose everything else or shoot from a much higher angle and have much less sky in the background. Until you made the comment only you knew that the water was greener. I like the colour balance of the sky and water.

I don't see the issues you might have with #1 and agree with many of the above comments. Well exposed, well framed and a very good compostion overall.

#2 just works for me a little better because it captures that 'innocence of youth' combined with nice overall scene. If it were mine it would be framed by now.

That's my take on it but it's only one opinion.

[thomasjmpark]

IMO Gary you are being overly critical of yourself. Its good to be critical to a point but thats to far, you have captured 2 fabulous shots there and may be room for improvement but there always is. I too sometimes crit my work to much until somebody comes along and says good things about it, getting compliments goes a long way in my book and you have many in this post

If I were you id sit back and appreciate them for what they are, cracking