two inches of perfection II.jpg
by saltwatershots

Comment by Retroesque:
Magic image - well captured.

stormy sunrise dpc.jpg
by saltwatershots

Comment by mpeters:
Good photo. I really like the just breaking wave, blurred but not unrecognizable and the waves cascading down the midground rock. Good detail in the clouds, sun brightness is contained and the horizon is level(don't laugh, ;) it's particularly important in this type of photo composition).

My only reall critique (personal preference only) is the prominence of the foreground rock. Losing some of this rock would bring more emphasis to the wave and the midground rock/water. I like the pools of water in the foreground but unless they have a little more detail I'm not sure what they do to improve the image. In a way the sky falls into this 'not needed' catagory except it has interesting storm clouds. Hope i've made some sense.

The colors are lovely, just what I'd expect to see in an ocean sunrise. Good choice on with your shutter speed. Regards, mark

stormy sunrise dpc.jpg
by saltwatershots

Comment by ErikV:
Overall very nice, like the way you got the wave blury, nice scenery.

This is too centered for my taste (sun, horizon, rock with water washing over it and to some extent even the best part of the wave are all centered). Thus only advice I have would have been to take this horizontally, removing a chunk of sky and adding more of a view to the left. If you can't go back to redo this, then would crop top of sky to shift horizon further away from the middle.

Minor additional thought: consider selectively lightening up the rocks in the foreground.

Hope this helps.

last light of the day
by saltwatershots

Comment by tjbel05:
Gorgeous lighting in the sky. I love the silky smoothness of the water. Great composition.

stormy sunrise dpc.jpg
by saltwatershots

Comment by MaryO:
I like the scene you chose. In particular, the sun and the light reflecting off the water, and especially off the rocks, is *gorgeous.* That lighting all by itself makes this a beautiful scene.

You've got good detail and your colors are perfect pastels for a sunrise. I might crop tighter on top so the final image is about equal in terms of sky and foreground rock vertically. The detail on the rock with the little pools of water makes it worth a bigger piece of the image.

The farther wave is pretty much perfect IMO. Detail and power and movement all in one. I might like a little more texture in the very white part of the water closer in but that could be asking for the impossible ;-) Overall you did an excellent job with the exposure on the diverse elements in the scene.

I don't like centered sorts of compositions very often but even though the sun is more or less centered the composition isn't, since the light reflections are at an angle (although not in a straight line with the sun, which is a little disconcerting).

All in all I like this a LOT. I don't get a tense feeling from it but then I've never surfed or even lived near the ocean, so watching waves has always been a soothing vacation sort of activity for me.

last light of the day
by saltwatershots

Comment by kenna718:
very cool scene, I wonder what would happen if you played around with the saturation or contrast.

last light of the day
by saltwatershots

Comment by VitaminB:
Good attempt. Could use a boost in contrast though.

two inches of perfection II.jpg
by saltwatershots

Comment by Wildcard:
Wow, this is gorgeous!

two inches of perfection II.jpg
by saltwatershots

Comment by SaraR:
You're right, you should have gone with this one! A very strong graphic image.

breaching humpback calf - fingal island
by saltwatershots

Comment by hotpasta:
not sure if this is in the new rules, but I will give you the benefit of the doubt...actually, looking closer, I reckon you'll be dqed...anyhow...a nice experience to see something like this...