Santorini Whip

[xendless xurbia]

Taken in Santorini on July 18th 2007.
I cropped it tight on purpose.

Whiiiiiip away!!
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1079/986657850_22f4a1f9da_o.jpg

[Izpipo]

As you already know, I love the pic, I love how white the white is and the contrast betwenn the white and the waters.

[quark]

Why did you crop it so tight? I wish I could see more ocean. The cross looks cramped up there.

Wonderful color of course!

[xendless xurbia]

I wanted to try a different crop with this type of image. Looking at it a day later, I should really have not cropped off the left and the right hand side of the image. Unfortunately I cannot do much about the water. I took the image a little crooked, and had to rotate it, meaning I had to sacrifice some water on top.

I'll post another version over the weekend when I have access to my home computer.

[wxwax]

I looove your colors, especially the two blues.

The composition just doesn't work for me, though. It feels unbalanced. I'm not sure how much extra space there is in your uncropped version, but if it's a lot, I bet you could come up with some different choices that would work better.

[ChatKat]

Being that I was in Santorini just two weeks before and took many similar pictures (in 115 degrees), I can say that it's easy to talk about the angles if you've not been walking around Oia or Fira - it's not easy to get those shots with 100's of tourists all jockeying for the same views - but - you did come in a bit too tight, there are something like 450 churches with the same kind roof and belltower. The colors are wonderful. I want to go back now and eat at the little restaurant whose name I forgot right near the donkey ride down the hill.....

[Gary Glass]

Color and composition are terrific. My initial reaction to the very tight crop was also negative. "Could I at least see the outside edges of the two primary structures? And the cross looks like it's just daring the top frame to come any lower!" But since you made a point of cropping it so close, I'm taking a more considered view...

And I still don't get it. Here's why. An extreme crop on an architectural subject like this suggests to me a sense of claustrophobia, the narrow confines of village life, or something along those lines. But everything else in the picture seems to counter that theme. The open white area, the sea, the brilliant colors, and especially the lack of people.

Another way to read this crop is that you might be suggesting an abstract composition. The super-saturated colors and very sharp geometric lines also play to that idea. But the rocks on the left undercut it.

So is it right or wrong? Beats me! But these are the reactions your photo evokes in me. You are the one to determine whether they are the responses you were going for.

[xendless xurbia]

Here's a less cropped version of the image I posted in the original post. I think it works a little better. Thanks guys and gals!

Tell me if it works.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1118/1017971221_a40a2015a7_o.jpg

[Gary Glass]

Crop is better, but light is darker.

[xendless xurbia]

I *think* I found a balance in terms of crop, color and lightness.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1439/1018980740_f262bd7ba8_o.jpg