The local mining smelter smoke stake stands watch over the sailboats at the marina on the shores of Great Salt Lake. Seeing all of the masts lining up with the smoke stake, created a picture of father and sons.
I shot this using the settings from the image before. Then changed the settings to get a stronger depth of field. Surprisingly, this f5.6 shot kept much of the detail.
Editing included crop, level, saturation, brightness and unsharp mask.
Statistics
Place: 133 out of 159 Avg (all users): 4.6494 Avg (commenters): 5.1875 Avg (participants): 4.6207 Avg (non-participants): 4.6646 Views since voting: 1083 Views during voting: 363 Votes: 251 Comments: 18 Favorites: 0
First of all let me say that I'm sure you got a lower score on this shot because many viewers did not see the relationship to the "Family" Challenge (see comments). It's a really nice shot though (also as evidenced by a number of comments).
Composition
I really like it. I like the close crop and the slightly off-center placement of the smokestack. You've got nice vertical and horizontal references.
Lighting/Color
Both are great. You've got some nice shadows on the boats and the colors are naturally vivid without being overpowering or oversaturated. One thing that is a little distracting to me is the large shadow in the mountains. I'm sure it's probably a shadow of an adjoining peak or a cloud, but because of the crop and the shape of the shadow, it's not evident.
DOF/Definition
Also both very good. I think the clarity is especially sharp.
OVERALL
Relationship to challenge topic was sketchy and really hurt your score. Otherwise, there's really very little I find that I would change about the shot (although the suggestions made to shoot it from a lower angle and/or to make it a triptych might prove interesting).
I like the verticality of this shot; shooting from a lower angle might improve the composition. The placement of the "patriarch" in the frame seems a little odd; I'd have rather seen it dead center or closer to one of the edges.
One thing that would have pushed this from a good photo to a ribbon contender is if you had made a triptych out of it. For example, imagine that you're tethered to the smokestack and you're walking around it taking pictures from the 1 o'clock position, then the 2 o'clock position, etc. Pick your favorite three of these photographs and create a tryptich from the results. Doing this wouldn't make your submission meet the challenge any better, but I imagine that it'd still have enough of a kick to boost it's score significantly.
beautiful phot of ships, yet it does not say family to me...might to you though if you were raised in a family of boat loveers or around the ships. I'm not pointing you down for it, just letting you know what it does or doesn't say to me.
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