It was raining on Saturday morning. A brief window opened up early in the morning so I ran down to the the beach hoping to catch just this - rain in the distance with some open sky. There were a lot of "God rays" so i thought I'd try a composition like Chris has posted (minimal water - mostly sky). Of course, I forgot his advise about tipping the camera up to get the "big sky" effect. Next time. What I did get were stripes in the clouds. They were actually there but I think they look like an artifact.
Feedback welcome!
I think you need more center of interest.. I
I would remove that black spot (bird).
thanks for the feedback!
You couldn't have tipped the camera up much more without falling over, Ruth! Seascapes in "bad" weather are the go, unless it's absolutely pouring (when you take shelter and bide your time). As Ruskin said, there's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.
I like both shots. I am not much on the always have horizons on thirds rule so I like the over dramatic skies. pic 1 could maybe use a bit more water and I would take the bird out like El PIC suggested. Or, if you like the bird, crop the boat and water off and just keep a pic of the clouds. ?? The color gradient on that picture is really cool. I have been messing with the grad filter with luminosity mask (lightroom) as I work through my Ireland pics. You could get a little more detail out of the upper right using something like that.
I would do the same for pic 2 and take out the other small white spec boats. I am jealous that you live so close to the beach. If I jump up and take a picture in the morning it would just be tail lights stacked up on the highway!
Thanks for the tips Shawn! I appreciate the time and info.
We put Newark Airport in the worst part of the state as a screening tool to hide the fact that the rest of New Jersey is beautiful! You can go from beach to forest and mountain to meadow in minutes. I feel lucky about that every day! And living a couple blocks from the beach doesn't hurt!