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  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Rajan Parrikar

pro member
At Hvallátur, Iceland.

hvallatur.jpg
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief

Rajan,

Sunsets are so beautiful and we love to attempt to pull them home with us. Photography is our best effort to hold on to that beauty. However, since sunsets are so spellbinding and romantic, so many pictures are taken that it's hard to get pictures to rise above the mass of sentimentality.

Here you have some interesting unique elements worth working on further. The sun's golden reflections leaps over and repeats itself in a series of golden flashes, while horizontally you have caught a series of rocks in a similar periodicity. I like these parts of the picture.

As it is, the picture needs no work. It's enjoyable, could sell as sunsets, are always popular. But is that all? I think there's more, much more possible in the very hard work of making unique sunset pictures that have their own character.

So here's a suggestion. Crop away 2/3 of the upper sky as it adds no further drama. Then look at the rocks in the RAW of your image files. Can you bring out and red glow from the sky on the back edge?

I believe that with these changes, the picture might be more effective. It's worth looking at, if only as a prod to carve a presentation that is unlike other folks sunsets.

Asher

P.S. Now please go to the recent posts and find 3 photographer's pictures for you to comment on! That will help make OPF work as we look after and value each other.
 

Rajan Parrikar

pro member
Asher,

My first instinct was not to put up this photograph, partly for the reason you have stated - sunsets have become cliched.

But there were, to me, a couple of compelling reasons to compose this scene and press the shutter, and neither, alas, can be directly transmitted to the viewer. One was the fact that it was the midnight sun (nothing in the image suggests that) and the good fortune to enjoy a clear enough night to be able to see & photograph it. This is Iceland, where weather patterns change by the minute. For another night such as this one at this location, you may have to wait a week, a month, or even until the next year, and even then it is likely to have a different character. The second reason was the sheer surreality of it. You are in the middle of nowhere, there are these hues on the sand and water ahead of you, and the only sound is that of the waves lapping. This is the earth's edge!

I would have liked to be able to say that this photograph conveys a sense of the feeling I experienced when I made it, but I can't.
 

Rajan Parrikar

pro member
Asher,

I forgot to add - this sunset shot was the finale to the night, on our way back after we had spent time in the company of the puffins.
 
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