Pandanas Palm

[Grumpy John]

I tried to capture three elements here. The ruggedness of the cliff/shoreline, the Pandanas palm perched precariously atop the cliff, and the blue of the sea/sky. Not sure I succeeded.
Shot at Fingal Head, near the N.S.W./Qld. border.
Any comments and CC gratefully appreciated.

[Ralph]

My 1st thought on this was that would make a great jigsaw puzzle.
So if this is what I am thinking then for me you have hit the nail on the head, and I really like what you have done here.
And on a Footy note for this year watch the Demons I think these will be the sleepers.
If we make it and its our teams at the end we might have to have a bet between us.
But not like sheep stations that is.
And I did mean to agree with what you said about last years winner being the Drugcoast Eagles.

[Toddyh]

Hi John, I find the shadows in the foreground a little off putting. I'm also not sure about the geometry of the image. A little crop off the bottom and a tiny crop off the top might improve it. Something like this

[Grumpy John]

I agree with what you said about the shadows Todd, also the sky is too wishy washy on the LHS and the horizon. I don't generally like landscapes in portrait mode either, but I thought this one might just work. I have other images of this scene that I'll put up later

[Toddyh]

Agree about the sky too John. At first I thought you had dust bunnies.
Look forward to seeing alternate images.

[Ironwood]

I like having the rocks on the bottom of the image, I think Todd’s crop has gone too far. I tried scrolling the image down and using the bottom edge of the screen to crop a smaller portion of the rocks, I think this makes a stronger image.

[Grumpy John]

I agree with you Brad, I like the ruggedness of the rocks, but I also see Todd's point about the shadows. Looks like a lesson on Dodge and Burn coming up.

[Grumpy John]

An edit.

[Toddyh]

Little too much shadow lift there I think.

[Grumpy John]

Geez, you guys are hard to please.

[Toddyh]

Yeah being picky. Sorry John.
The original was nicely exposed except for those shadows in the rocks. The light on some of the rocks was nice too. Catch 22 I guess.

[Grumpy John]

No need to apologise Todd, It was a difficult exposure to get right. I don't know if you are familar with Fingal Head, but those rocks are quite dark and when wet are jet black.

[wigz]

I like the first image best and I think you achieved your objective. I don't mind the shadows on the rocks and the angle of the sunlight brings out the texture. The uneven sky bothers me a little - did you perhaps use a polarising filter on a wide angle lens, I've been caught by this a few times.

[Grumpy John]

No CP filter attached Alan. The sun was setting to the left so that area is slightly overexposed.

[Isac]

Lovely image John and well spotted. Your plan to focus on the 3 elements came off pretty well IMHO. Only a couple of things:
1: Do a shadows adjustment on the rocks using a mask in preference to D&B
2: Level the horizon.
3: Darken the sky on the right.
All easy peasy mate.

[Grumpy John]

Another project for another time