Caught these at a tiny beach not far from my home the other day. It was a hazy day and the water wasn't giving me the color I would've liked so I decided to play with a B and W conversion. I wanted make the subject pop a little more and add a little more drama to an otherwise bland day.
Would love your thoughts!
Hey Doug!
I am giving you feedback on this and also asking for feedback in return from my last post in this group. I really love the top image, though i think it would just a little better if it was a tad wider, maybe including his feet and the sand. The bottom photo is cool, but I just think that the subject is a little too centered. I'm not sure how this area is, but I think it would have been much improved if you had gotten a perspective to the side and gotten him on the right side if you angled to the left and vice versa, so he had ocean yup move into. I also think that maybe timing it a second or two earlier so that you captured the moment he was nearly vertical going over the breaking wave. I think the black and white in this case is good, and that it adds contrast and drama to (as you sorta said) an otherwise ordinary and bland surfing and paddleboard scene.
Let me know if that makes sense.
Cheers,
Tyler
Thanks for the comment Tyler! Good thoughts. I'm still a novice and I'm trying to get better at thinking fast about composition when I'm in the moment. I was actually shooting other stuff on the beach when this guy showed up and I just switched and shot him on the fly without thinking too much about comp. Your words are a good reminder.
I'll hop over and comment on yours shortly.
With shots like this, try convincing your friends to help you out (especially the top) and just spend a bit more time thinking about composition. Do that and eventually it will come naturally in the moment. The action shots, what works for me is someone either climbing a bunch of times, or me actually climbing or mentally climbing the route beforehand so I get an idea for the best photo ops. And just practice practice practice. I shot an indoor climbing competition once for about 7 hours straight. My hand was cramped and my finger was literally blistered, and i filled up a card and a half, but I got about 20 "keepers"
Next time i shot climbing photos i got about a 50% hit rate, and now I get about 70% of images i could use. Obviously I then pick only about the top 10%, but point being I'm better at it overall in the moment
Doug, mate I really like the second shot, the movement in it is nice, one suggestion with the composition, for me it would be a stronger image if you had a little of the light space at the top of the frame and a little more of the movement of the water at the bottom of the frame in the image. nice shot though mate, keep shooting.. please comment of my post if you have time.....