Dusk on a Northern Lake

You caught the light as you described in the water. I have noticed your shutter speeds are very high in your posts. Is there a reason?
Maybe shooting handheld?
Jim

Youi have caught some very nice lighte here. I agree with Jim,  a slower shutter speed and smaller aperture would give more depth of field, and would round up the image with better focus on the foreground elements. Or perhaps the out of focus effect is what you were going for?

Hi Jim & Alberto

Yes, both this photo and  "Dusk on a Northern River", were hand held shots. I had just come out of the woods when I came upon this scene. I was a lot further up north then I live, and the speed that the light was changing caught me unawares. I made my focus mid-lake to try and catch the redish-gold glow before it was gone, used f/5.6 to (hopefully) ensure that capture. My hope was that the foreground and backgrounds would catch enough of the light and enough focus to make it work. Luck was with me and  I am happy with the out come, (even if there is noise in the shadows of the foreground). With more time I would have tried for a deeper DOF, but by the time I had checked what I had taken, the colour on the water was changed.
I must mention that this was the first real outing with the 7D, for the last three years I have used a SX50, so there is abit of a time lag in my set ups .

But I thank and appreciate you both for your comments and suggestions, next time I will know a better option the first time.

 

Considering this was hand held, you did a good job in rapidly changing light. The color looks good, and you were able to hold detail in the log and the tree.

--P

Jim, I always enjoy scenes like this at sunset with forground trees and reflected light across the water. For a hand held shot I would say you did a nice job with this. Very calming to look at! 

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

Jim,

This is another well done capture of the color and great moment of the setting sun.  You did well to frame the image, the trees on either side creating a "window" to view the colors in the background   Over time you'll learn to be more selective and with the growth in Photoshop you'll learn to start correcting some of the color issues that I see in the foreground, and in the trunk. (some oversaturation, color casts, chromatic abberations, little stuff like that.

But learning to recognize the beautiful moments is where it all starts.

Lon