Pier at San Simeon, CA, Sunset C&C (some lrg pics)

Mjollnir

Was just up the coast this weekend, for the last hurrah tour w/my beloved little FS7, and we just happened be at San Simeon for sunset. I've always liked the pier there, but never really considered it before as a photographic subject (too many people on it, weather's not right, etc....) Sorry for any redundancy, but the light conditions kept making the same things different. I love this little camera and couldn't have asked for a better box to learn on.

That, and I usually avoid sunrise/set photos like the plague, since so often overdone, and the camera I was using, while having a fantastic lens, offers very little in real control.













The last two are of my girlfriend, a pro, hard at work on the same subject

spooky donkey

im lovin that sky, nice work.

AnCatDubh

#2 and #3 i like - #2 in particular.

In #3 I think there may have been better angles available to you -- appears a little flat on.

#4 the leading lines are strong but I think you needed more of the scene on the right hand side / cropped too close to the line. IMHO, you'd needed to have given it the context of that particular space.

I think in most of the rest presented, the end of the pier is too close to the side of your frame but that's just a personal opinion. I don't know of a rule that would back me up on that. They just leave me feeling there was an opportunity missed in not capturing a little distance beyond the pier end.

In the ones with the girlfriend included, I think they are nice memories of the scene and the day but don't particularly make great photographs. The scene in both are nice and the perspective is good (would have liked a little more on the left hand side in 2nd last - same point as above). The inclusion of a photographer at work; I don't think enhances the scene (obviously, nothing to do with it being your girlfriend). It is obvious from the photographs what the person is doing - a photographer at work - so it isn't just a casual bystander who happened to look really well as they wandered into the scene like those that are obviously enjoying the ameniety of walking along the pier. Again, this; just an opinion which you are free to ignore, but to my mind I don't think it makes for a better image.

The last two while having some really nice tones would benefit from bumping the contrast in specific areas (or perhaps burning them a little in post production) in which the tones become 'greyed' out (eg. in last image, top 25% of image and 75% from right hand side -- the headland area in particular).

So for me, #2 is the best of the batch. This is a really nice image. There is a slight bit of something along the line of the horizon which might be better being removed.

The only other thing i'd suggest for what its worth is they don't offer anything new on pier scenes -- this isn't a particular issue if you didn't intend to seek out creativity, and in fairness as you've already observed, piers are done to death (almost as much as swans ) - still they can make for aesthetically pleasing subjects and I think you hit success with #2 above.

Hope the above helps. Don't worry - if Cartier Bresson had posted something here, I'd have found fault with it too which also says a lot about how to take any criticism of images -- ie. understand them just as someones interpretation of the scene presented rather than de-facto direction as to what is right or wrong with an image.

Well done.

magicbastarder

that line of trees in the background did you no favours.
i think the best is #2; it would also probably be good for a b&w conversion. but they're a bit samey to post them all here, i think there would have been more impact with the best two or three.

preilly79

great shots. I was there a few years back. have you visited Hearst Castle in San Simeon? It's well worth a visit.