Does this one image tell the story?

[FootLoose]

There was a big swell running one day last week. I went to the usual location at the breakwater but it wasn’t particularly impressive, probably because it was high tide and the backwash from the breakwater was killing the incoming waves (which is what it is designed to do). So I headed over to North beach where the waves were providing a much more satisfying display.

The challenge then was how to capture this event so that people who are not familiar with the area gain a sense of the scale and impact of this storm surge. It would have been good to have a person on the water’s edge to show the size of the waves, but that would have been far too dangerous. So I decided to include the sign in the foreground instead, but even so, there is nothing to indicate how big the sign is. So I kept moving around until I was able to include the breakwater in the background, and was eventually lucky enough to capture this one image with the waves breaking over it.

In the distant background the cars might offer some sense of scale, and there are one or two people on the hill near the distant lighthouse which might also help, but maybe they are too far away to be of any use.

So, does the first image tell the story on its own, or does it need the second one, showing the breakwater, to help it? All C&C welcome.

1. Big Swell at North
Big Swell North_M8A6184 copy by Foot Loose2012, on Flickr


2. Swell at Old Lighthouse
Swell at Old Lighthouse_M8A5986 copy by Foot Loose2012, on Flickr

[JBW]

To my way of thinking the two shots aren't connected. Shot 2 speaks to me but not shot 1.

[Mike Buckley]

The first shot not only speaks well on its own, but is also more enjoyable for me. It provides plenty of scale and it seems that the sign is helping to do that. As an example, I think the sign is about 5 feet tall. Am I right?

[FootLoose]

The first shot not only speaks well on its own, but is also more enjoyable for me. It provides plenty of scale and it seems that the sign is helping to do that. As an example, I think the sign is about 5 feet tall. Am I right?

Pretty close, Mike. Between 4 and 5 feet. I was kneeling down to take the shot and it was rammed fairly deep into the sand to avoid being washed away.

[george013]

Pretty close, Mike. Between 4 and 5 feet. I was kneeling down to take the shot and it was rammed fairly deep into the sand to avoid being washed away.

It's difficult to make a photo that tells the story you saw and pass that through.
I think it's to much a landscape picture. If you crop a little bit, making the angle of view smaller, than more attention is given to the waves. The background is getting "bigger", it's getting more dramatic.

George

[IzzieK]

I particularly like #1 if you ask me about the two of them. The scale can be found in #2 with the people and the anchor from the foreground there too. I like the spray of water there. In #1 it is more neater with the waves folding over to form a surf but the swell prevented it from making it big really. The sign forms the anchor to the shot.

[Shadowman]

Both tell the story but are perhaps more inviting for adventurous types.

[John 2]

Both tell the story for me as well. The potential power of the surge comes out in the first image. The impact is demonstrated by the second. I like both shots but perhaps no.2 is more appealing photographically than the first.

[flashback]

Greg, for me #1 tells the story, relative to the sign. Since #2 doesn't have the sign and while it's pretty obvious I wouldn't be swimming there, the waves breaking on the breakwater seems a clear indication to me that there is no beach there, thus no one would be swimming. But both images convey the power of the ocean.

[FootLoose]

Thank you to everyone, your comments are helpful.

Regarding the 2nd shot: that kind of shot is pretty typical. When the swell is up, the local tv news films it, the local newspaper puts it on the front page; every photographer and phonographer shoots it and puts in on the web. I have taken this kind of image on many occasions and this time I wanted to try something different.