5 Palm trees

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Went to dinner last night 'up on the hill' at my sis-in-law's. Should have taken my tripod but there was cloud cover when I left the house so I didn't think there'd be any chance for a decent picture. So, I had to improvise by placing the camera on a stone wall to steady it. Knowing that the lens isn't the best for distance shots I'm pretty happy with what I was able to capture. As you can tell from the picture, I'm easily pleased.
C&C always welcome.

[Geoff F]

Basic shot and exposure etc have worked well; but if only you could have managed a slightly different position which avoided all that out of focus foreground . . .

[Nicks Pics]

The water and the palm trees are beautiful. I agree with Geoff though.

[joebranko]

Love the colours and the palms in silhouette.

[IzzieK]

Gotta straighten this photograph, mate! The ghosting shadow must have came from the inside of the house...reflection from the window...

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Thanks for the input everyone.
The wall I used is actually a sitting wall around an outdoor fire pit and it wasn't as high as the foliage that was just in front of it, hence the OOF stuff in the foreground. I would have liked to have used the bbq as it was higher, but it was being used to bbq the tri-tip for dinner, so was too hot to set the camera on. For what it's worth, this picture is actually pretty straight as far as vertical goes. The bottoms of the cloud cover aren't 'level' and the palms don't grow perfectly vertical either. Izzy I don't know how any ghosting would have taken place since this wasn't shot looking thru a window, there were windows behind me though.

[Rebel]

It definitely looks as if its leaning to the right slightly?

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Alan,

I'll provide the EXIF data: Sony NEX-7, 1.3 s at 400 iso and no lens data (an adaptor I guess).

However, we must change your username - this was shot on "Manual"

Like the lady says; you gotta straighten it

I would suggest a try handheld, held up high (to clear the foreground foliage) and using a higher ISO and faster shutter speed, since you're not interested in foreground exposure, only silhouette and the sea, which was sunlit, I bet you could have got away with it.

HTH, Dave

[IzzieK]

Dave, do you know how hard it is for an Asian tongue to pronounce the word "Manual"? True story. I have to practice saying it for days before I finally got it...

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Thanks Dave. Part of the reason I didn't go higher on the ISO is the camera doesn't do so well past 400 IMO. I really wasn't going for the silhouettes as much as I was trying to see how well the lens did on infinity in those conditions
For all of you who feel it should be straightened, here is a picture I took of basically the same view only during the day, back in May of this year. You'll notice that the palm trees aren't growing vertically relative to the buildings in the back ground. I think that and the fact the cloud cover isn't 'flat' too have you all 'off kilter' a bit.
The second picture is the first straightened as best as I can make it re: the trees being vertical.





The whole exercise of using all my old legacy lenses on my NEX is to 'get me off auto' so I can change my moniker. =;>)