WAVE!

I agre with your assessment of the rock on the left, I'd crop about half of it off. I like your composition with the crashing waves in the background it makes the image more dynamic.

That rock is an interesting subject on it's own. I can imagine a shot with it and just the one head showing. I agree about too much rock in this composition. I think the wave is a great addition. The texture in the fur of the sea lions (seals??) and the wave terrific.

I love that wave action and having 2 seals in the frame - but that big rock is very distracting unfortunately. The processing looks a little off (did you use the shadow/highlight tool at all?) which is something I struggled with last season when processing my seal photos. The fact that there are usually whites and blacks in the image makes it difficult to process right but over time you will get much better. Look forward to the next shot.

Nice shot, Jerry. I think the wave adds a lot to the photograph. I agree with a little less rock, but overall IMO it is a good shot.

Ron Huff

Wow, that wave is fantastic Jerry! The rock indeed is too prominent, and in fact this could even work without any FG rock. In this case I would crop a bit off the left to reduce its impact. Luke is probably right in that the image appears to have suffered a bit from excessive shadow retrieval with the S/H tool.

Hi Jerry,

That wave is great - quite a nice backdrop!

Here's a bit different take: personally I don't find that rock on the left too objectionable (perhaps a BIT too massive and some of it should be cropped off), but two other things struck me about the shot:

1. The colour "shift" in the wave puzzled me (and thus distracted me). The green portions around the rock seem odd and a little "unnatural" (even if they ARE natural). Personally I'd lose that colour cast and keep the wave more homogenous in colour.

2. Wish that seal on the left wasn't looking away...

Unless Luke and Vincent are referring to the same colour cast in the wave and attributing that to heavy use of the Shadow/Highlight tool (which is possible), I don't see any other evidence of excessive use of that tool.

Cheers...thanks for sharing this one...

Brad

I would also crop a little from the left. You can almost hear the waves crashing against the rocks!

no nits about the wave, it adds dynamism to the shot; as you stated the leftmost rock is to much intrusive.

luca