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Hello everyone!
I wanted to share my photos from my most recent trip to Cumberland Island at the end of October. I was having a lot of trouble with my camera and just recently got it fixed, so that’s why the pictures are not as sharp as mine usually are.
I thought quite a few of these pictures turned out really well and I wanted to see what you all thought about them. What do you think I could have done better? This was the first time I have experimented with shooting waves and cropping pictures as panoramics. I also had a lot of fun taking pictures of the Fiddler Crabs and you all will probably think it’s unique that I think armadillos are cute (hence the photo of the armadillo). We also saw two baby alligators @jamesstaddon! In case you wonder why I included the picture of the wild horse under the tree, I thought it looked creative – a tree with legs… 🙂
Thanks for your input!
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Hello @ephillips, I apologize for taking so long to respond to your post! Once things started getting busy with Mordecai’s arrival, I’ve been in catch-up mode ever since. 🙂
I’ve never been to Cumberland Island, but have heard SO much about it! Was it a day trip, or were you able to spend the night camping on the island?
Here are my candid thoughts as I clipped through your 15 amazing photos!
1. What an interesting place! I’m glad you included the entire architectural element. It would have looked bad if the wall on the right especially was cropped at all. Since the sky has very little texture in it, I might have tried to see what patterns or progressive elements I could have found in the shadows or grass.
2. What a beautiful horse! I bet the camera overexposed the photo in order to retain detail in the dark hair. I wonder if exposing normally and then brightening the shadows would have allowed the green in the background to be more vibrant! You might be able to do something similar with the exposure you do have, just darkening the highlights some. I like how the horse is coming around the tree, and doesn’t appear bothered by you being so close. Nice composition.
3. So lucky, getting to see some alligators! 🙂 Were you in a boat on the water to be able to get that angle?!
4. Seeing it up close, yeah, that is kinda neat how it looks like the tree has legs. 😀 I like how you cropped it so the horse wasn’t dead center, but down lower in the frame. And the horse and tree are the same luminosity values, so they do visually merge. Very nice. I might like to see a little more room under the horse, and maybe straighten out the photo a bit?
5. What an interesting looking palm tree! That’s a great subject for a centered composition. Would it at all have been possible to step slightly to the right so that the tree was perfectly in between the two boats? That would have made it look more intentionally balanced, to match the perfectly balanced centered composition.
And I’ll do the next 5 in another reply! 🙂
6. I so enjoy looking at photos that folks submit here that they took in exotic places! This places looks so incredibly epic! This is definitely one of my favorites. If it was not quite so overexposed so I could see detail in the highlight areas, it would be even better! The larger leaves coming in on the left, plus the larger tree on the left, with smaller leaves and trees progressing into the background, really give this photo nice depth (diminishing perspective). The “hole” of sky in the top right disturbs the crazy texture of tree branches, so it would be nice if you had been able to move around a bit to somehow fill that up. Albeit, love this one!
7. This is another one of the ones that stand out to me. Very simple. But not empty. Subtle color gradient and interesting textures to explore. If it is possible not to crop out so much of the top, I’d probably like being able to see a little more breathing room up there.
8. It’s nice that above and below the wave is uninterrupted texture. This helps keep attention on the wave. It’s not the most shapely wave in the world, but it’s neat that you captured the texture of the splashing water! I might crop off the dark area of the wave on the right side.
9. I like the progression of waves! They don’t merge with each other. That turns them into noticeable horizontal lines going across the photo. I may crop an inch or two off the left? That might make the distant wave look more like a main subject? It’s tough in the middle of the day like that. Not much texture or color or directional light.
10. Yeah, there you go. This one is better, for seeing the wave. It’s facing left, but dead center, so makes it a bit left-weighted. May crop a bit off the right side, or add a bit more on the left side? Since it’s in the middle of the day, I wonder if a B&W conversion would look nice…
11. I don’t have any picture like this in my portfolio. That’s really amazing so many birds on the beach like that. It’s hard to critique something so uncontrollable. I guess patterns and intentional elements happen more at random in these scenarios, where you just have to pull out the best of the bunch!
12. This has the nice added element of the glass-like reflections in the sand. A bit more of a traditional view.
13. Gotta love the depth of field! And nice low angle. Perhaps a little too much empty space on the left compared to the padding space on the right? Any photo with grass in the middle of the day could also use some saturation.
14. Good job not placing the subject dead center. There are eye-flow elements to work with. It might be nice if some were used to direct the eye to the subject? Maybe some side, directional lighting (instead of backlighting) would help bring out out it’s color better? Not sure how much these guys move around, or what influence you have on their position.
15. Wow, a whole colony of those little guys! Never seen anything like that before! Again, looking for shape and pattern. Either that, or a subject for the eye to attach on to right at first? And also again, it’s easier to work with, in editing, photos that are slightly underexposed vs those that are slightly overexposed. Maybe that’s just a “my screen” thing, but I would tend to say most of the photos seemed kinda bright, without being able to see the histogram.
Good work! Love seeing your photos. Thanks for sharing! Gotta go feed the baby now. 🙂 Till next time.
Your photos from Cumberland Island are so… true! The wave shots have a great sense of motion, and that panoramic crop enhances the views. The Fiddler Crabs and armadillo are charming captures, reminded me of the wildlife I saw in Branson a while ago 🙂 There, I also encountered unique animals and stunning landscapes. Here is where I stayed, if you’re curious: https://www.westgateresorts.com/hotels/missouri/branson/
Btw, I love that whimsical tree with legs, hehe.
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