Cape Spear Lighthouse

[Manfred M]

Cape Spear is reportedly the eastern most point of continental North America (I guess that is true if you ignore that both Greenland and the western third of Iceland are on the North American tectonic plate). The lighthouse at Cape Spear is a very much photographed piece of real estate and I wanted to photograph it from a different approach.

I chose to effectively photograph the fence that prevents people like me from wandering too close to the edge of of the cliff that the lighthouse is built on as the main compositional element, leading to the lighthouse. I used the hyperfocal distance to help me select an appropriate focus point that ensure that the fence was sharp enough, as was the lighthouse and the horizon.

[Shadowman]

Nicely composed.

[Cogito]

I think I would have leaned over the fence to get more lighthouse......

[NorthernFocus]

That's a great idea for the composition, Manfred. And technically well executed. My only critique is that a bit of separation between bottom of lighthouse and top of fence may have been preferable.

[madcrow]

Great exposure and execution.

[Manfred M]

That's the conventional view I tried to avoid. I have a number of more traditional shots of this site.

[Manfred M]

That's a great idea for the composition, Manfred. And technically well executed. My only critique is that a bit of separation between bottom of lighthouse and top of fence may have been preferable.

Thanks Dan - I was more concerned with trying to line up the red railing around the light with the horizon.

I know I had framed a shot like the one you suggested but ended up not taking it as I preferred the view where the lighthouse blended with the fence.

[selig1656]

Well it appears that your different angle of capturing the light house was well accomplished . Definitely the fence is sharp and the DOF is terrific.

[Davejl]

I'd be inclined to crop at the bottom to lose most of the grass at bottom left.

[John 2]

Full marks for something different Manfred but I'm not sure about this as a comp. The fence takes my eye out of the LHS. Cropping off the downward sloping section and some off the bottom helps and create more of a circular link between the fence, the lighthouse and the ship on the horizon. Just a thought. Shoot me if you disagree.

[Manfred M]

Full marks for something different Manfred but I'm not sure about this as a comp. The fence takes my eye out of the LHS. Cropping off the downward sloping section and some off the bottom helps and create more of a circular link between the fence, the lighthouse and the ship on the horizon. Just a thought. Shoot me if you disagree.

Thanks for the thoughts, John.

When I saw the fence and lighthouse, the first thing that came to my mind were the colours and the vertical lines; the slats in the fence, the lighthouse, the horizon line and the shadows cast by the parts of the fence. This really reminded me of shooting a snow scene, where white is the dominant colour and it exists all around the boundaries of the scene. By any traditional measure, the snow should drag out eyes out of the scene, but because it overwhelms so much, that doesn't really happen. I was trying to guide the viewer's eyes along the fence, to where it connected with the lighthouse, up the lighthouse and then along where the lighthouse and horizon met, and then along the horizon line to the ship.

The only part of the composition that was not working for me is the bottom left hand corner, so a burned that in fairly hard to reduce it as a distraction.