My First Published Image - Kiteworld Magazine
by yakatme

Comment by MelonMusketeer:
Excellent color and action! Go Robert!

My First Published Image - Kiteworld Magazine
by yakatme

Comment by pineapple:
Pretty photo. Well done.

Everglades Sunset
by yakatme

Comment by Ivory:
An overall stunning image from the light to the colours simply beautiful!

Nature's Omega
by yakatme

Comment by graphicfunk:
Endearing warm tones surrounded with cool water. Impressive. Congratulations on your top 20 finish.

Nature's Omega
by yakatme

Comment by sherpet:
This is really cool and I love it..... It really suits the challenge IMO thats for sure.....

Nature's Omega
by yakatme

Comment by karmat:
CRITIQUE CLUB CRITIQUE
by karmat

Great work at finding a naturally occurring symmetrical picture. Nicely captured.

You have managed to create the feeling of depth here, even though the photograph is "2-dimensional." Even at this small a size, the vastness of this "structure" carries forth and could overwhelm a viewer should they choose to view it for long.

The red is a bit overbearing, I think. While I know that that is the color of this area, it still seems to be a bit on the edge. If you could boost the blues and greens a bit more, and take down the reds *just a touch* I think it would help make it a bit more pleasant for the viewer.

Nevertheless, AWESOME shot and congrats on the top 20.

karma

Riding The Wave
by yakatme

Comment by graphicfunk:
The color play here is simply charming and hypnotic. Congratulations on your top 20 finish.

Nature's Omega
by yakatme

Comment by SandyP:
What a beautiful photo! Jeeeez. I HAVE to go there!

Riding The Wave
by yakatme

Comment by ArpeggioAngel:
I just LOVE the red on blue of this photo, not only the "wave" action in the rock itself, but the way the rock lines up against the sky. Great shot!

Riding The Wave
by yakatme

Comment by yakatme:
Thanks Melanie and the Critique Club for the comments. To answer your question, yes, that's exactly what I did. The camera was upside down on the end of my monopod with the timer set to 5 seconds so that I could "compose" the shot based on where the lens seemed to be aimed. I did this while exiing The Wave because the rest of the GTG were leaving to get the passes to the others in the GTG. I didn't have much time to take a large number of shot like I normally do, but at least a couple came out pretty good without the need to crop the shot. A level horizon didn't even matter here either which made this even easier than others that I have done.

I first started doing this low perspective type of shots from my kayak with the Sony F707 which had a swivel body so that I could see the LCD screen. When I decided to go DSLR, I had to accept that I would no longer have an LCD to compose with and knew that I would just have to "wing it". I have gotten better at it with practice, but really I just take a lot of shots and keep varying the aim of the lens and the horizontal tilt of the of the camera body. I've thought about getting the right angle viewfinder attachments that I've seen advertised or even an 8 inch level or two.

As far as the colors in the shot go, especially the sky, they are actually more saturated than I like because of that blue and gold polarizer that I was using. I decided to go with it because others in the GTG were somewhat impressed after giving it a try. I tried it again out there after not having used it for more than a year because of the exaggerated effect. But, after I hiked out through the desert to The Wave, I was actually too lazy to change to a normal polarizer even though I knew that I should. Couple that with the limitations of post processing on my laptop without Photoshop and that's why the colors are a bit off.

Considering everything, I am very happy with my entry's placement in this challenge. Thank you, and all other commenters for taking the time on my image.