Sentinels at Sunset & RP

Hello Kathy, I am fairly new too. Your photo is beautiful.  The colors are very deep and rich and the silhouette of the pelicans are neat. Welcome and enjoy this wonderful forum. It has been very helpful to me.  They may suggest another forum for the birds and man made poles in the water instead of the landscape forum. Have fun and good luck!                                 

Hi Norma. Thanks for those nice comments. I really wasn't sure where to post this as the birds do not predominate and I was not sure if landscape had a "no hand of man" requirement. I will put it in Avian as well and if the moderator deletes it here , fine with me. 
 

Welcome to NPN Kathy, and you have posted a beautiful first image.  According to the posting guidelines, this really should be posted in Man & Nature, or perhaps Man & Fauna, but that's just guidelines.

I really like the combination of warm and cool colors in this and I also like to general composition with one little exception.  While very nice as it is, if your tripod was set a little lower it would have separated the birds from the horizon line better so that it wouldn't appear that the bird are "sitting on the horizon".  IMHO, I think that would strengthen the overall image.  Still a wonderful first post.  Looking forward to seeing many more.

Welcome to NPN Kathy!

A beautiful sunset image indeed.  Great comment and observations from Bill.  I wouldn't have thought of lowering just a tad to help separate the pelicans from the horizon. Great tip!

The composition is excellent; you've placed the diagonal of the pilings nicely in the frame and the slight pano format enhances the lines. Excellent.

for my taste, the cyan in the water and the water in general is too saturated.  But then that is a subjective call and personal choice. But for certain the colors are bold and beautiful.  The sunset color in the sky is more believable to me.  Overall, a tad dark, but then again, a personal choice on presentation and the darkness does give this mood.

We look forward to your images and just as importantly your participation in the community!

Lon

Thank you Bill and Lon!,

Bill...I actually tried to line those pelicans up with their feet on the horizon!  But, I see your point!  I did also post in Man and Nature Inc I realized my mistake.

Lon. Thank you for the comment about cyan and the darkness. I tend to make my landscapes darker than I should so will play with that and the cyan.

kathy

Welcome!  This is pretty rad!  Great work keeping the horizon and top of posts in line...whether on purpose or not thats awesome. Great work.  Looks slightly dark and saturated imo but all personal pref.  Did you do a LE too?  Nicely seen!

aF

Hi Aaron. Thank you for the kind comments!

Yes, I did deliberately line those birds up perched on the horizon as that is the shot I saw when I looked up from pacing my gear. I had made a number of long exposures earlier from different angles and was pretty worn out. Then, I am packing up, look up and see this afterglow and all the birds nicely lined up. Had to put a different lens on and contort myself to get the thing lined up but got it done in record time. 

Several people have mentioned the darkness and saturation. I plan to work on that as soon as I can get to my computer. 

Best

Hi Aaron. Thank you for the kind comments!

Yes, I did deliberately line those birds up perched on the horizon as that is the shot I saw when I looked up from pacing my gear. I had made a number of long exposures earlier from different angles and was pretty worn out. Then, I am packing up, look up and see this afterglow and all the birds nicely lined up. Had to put a different lens on and contort myself to get the thing lined up but got it done in record time. 

Several people have mentioned the darkness and saturation. I plan to work on that as soon as I can get to my computer. 

Best

I cannot edit the original file above right now as I am riding in a motorhome and cant hook up the external drive.  The original file above went through photoshop and is not a tiff on my external drive.  Bill's comments about the separation at the horizon nagged at me a bit as I wanted to see what that would look like and wondered if I had thought to try it at the time given how quickly I had to take this.  Low and behold I had done that so I have used the smart preview in LR to do edits and have brought up the exposure, sharpened for the web, and tried to bring down the cyan (although in LR, I am just playing with blue and aqua) , brought down the overall saturation a bit , and did some work with brushes to lighten the front and to change the top ,  Basically I incorporated all the helpful comments that have been given.  This is what I have come up with.  Comments again most welcome!!

Regards to all and many thanks
Kathy

Welcome to NPN. I like your first post and really like the repost. You made great improvements to the image. I am looking forward to seeing more of your work and reading your comments! 

Welcome! this is quite  a good shot, and the re-post is even better. It's very tough to get multiple birds or animals to cooperate, but the pelicans did a pretty good job!
Great sunset colours, set off well by the blue water and dark clouds. I might crop a bit more off the bottom, but fine as is.
Very nice work!
Sandy

Thanks for the kind comments Harley and Sandy!