2016 Project 52, Second Quarter by Joe/ Joebranko

This was taken from under the shade of some beautiful trees on the shoreline in Grimsby Ontario looking through a gap in the green into the lake. The sky and lake were both very bright and the trees in shade so I took 2 exposures, hand held, both at f 6.3, and merged them using Lightroom's HDR merge function. The first was at 1/600" to capture the lake and sky details, the second at 1/125" to capture details of the trees in the foreground. This is the resulting shot.

http://i66.tinypic.com/2vabh9i.jpg

That has come out very well for a merge.

nicely done and good composition

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Originally Posted by Geoff F

That has come out very well for a merge.

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Thanks Geoff

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Originally Posted by Urbanflyer

nicely done and good composition

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Thanks Judith

Joe, this is a really beautiful sunset shot, focus and DoF is perfect. I am a bit of a realist and do not like cutting out objects in photos, it does look good, but I can see where you have removed the rock on the right. Probably would not notice if I had not been shown the original. Oh I am talking about your sunset post of a few photos back.

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Originally Posted by joebranko

Early morning shot at the Lake Ontario beach. Taken with my (new) 24mm lens.

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Hi Joe, very strong colours, good clear foreground and mid ground (the rocks). I'd like to be able to see the distant buildings on the shoreline a lot clearer. I'd suggest moving closer to the beach and using just two of the trees to frame the scene giving a better view to the distant shore but still having a little of the grass in the foreground.

This is nice...peeking through gaps have been a pre-occupation lately...I am glad you too this image. 'Reminds me to shoot the scene instead of missing the opportunities it shows...

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Originally Posted by CormacD

Joe, this is a really beautiful sunset shot, focus and DoF is perfect. I am a bit of a realist and do not like cutting out objects in photos, it does look good, but I can see where you have removed the rock on the right. Probably would not notice if I had not been shown the original. Oh I am talking about your sunset post of a few photos back.

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Thanks Lindsay for noticing this. I will need to be more diligent when removing something.

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Originally Posted by CormacD

Hi Joe, very strong colours, good clear foreground and mid ground (the rocks). I'd like to be able to see the distant buildings on the shoreline a lot clearer. I'd suggest moving closer to the beach and using just two of the trees to frame the scene giving a better view to the distant shore but still having a little of the grass in the foreground.

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Thanks Lindsay. I was not trying to get the distant building into focus. In fact I had focused on the rocks, if I remember correctly, and I was particularly trying to include the gold glow on the grass and the colour of the lake around the rocks. In any case, this early in the morning there is often a mist over the lake so attempting a clear view of the buildings would probably have been futile.

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Originally Posted by IzzieK

This is nice...peeking through gaps have been a pre-occupation lately...I am glad you too this image. 'Reminds me to shoot the scene instead of missing the opportunities it shows...

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Thanks Izzie.

Lovely colours and contrast, Joe. I love the dappled light on the grass and tree trunks.

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Originally Posted by purplehaze

Lovely colours and contrast, Joe. I love the dappled light on the grass and tree trunks.

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Thanks Janis

Interesting Clouds:
#1 Just after sunrise.
http://i68.tinypic.com/143nshw.jpg

#2 Looking through the tree tops.
http://i63.tinypic.com/2eqe8sh.jpg

#3 Taken at about 7:30am.
http://i66.tinypic.com/149maq.jpg

Great trio--looks like you had fun!

Composition on #1 is really nice. Consider burning in the large rocks at the right end of the pier to reduce their tendency to draw the eye there. In addition think about eliminating the very right hand one.

#2 has good potential. Am I looking at trees with the sky behind or sky with the trees in front? Consider reducing that ambiguity by cropping from the bottom and left to more nearly create a frame similar to what you have on the right.

#3 A really clean composition--the right tree branch lifts up right into the lovely line of clouds! Well seen!

My favourite here in this batch is #1...the composition is great, human/dog/bird element included, the cloud subject is really outstanding in this one.If mine, I will want to crop this square but then the cloud topic will be cut short so I will just leave it as is...I think...

Nice series.

These work fine for me. The foregrounds are well focused and fairly narrow so they don't cause any distraction from the main scenes.

I can see where Izzie is coming from with #1 and cropping something from the right side is certainly an option, maybe end up with 5 x 4 ratio, or a bit wider? But something will be lost from the shoreline, so would it actually concentrate more on the person/sky? I'm not sure. Certainly the big tree needs to be retained in full.

Thanks Judith for your very helpful comments. I am thinking about cropping #1 on the right to remove the offending rock.

Thanks Izzie. Am thinking of cropping a bit on the right side to remove that light coloured rock!