Seen on California's Pacfic Coast Highway 1

[timk519]

I took this on California's Pacfic Coast Highway 1 a bit north of Hearst Castle.

Have at it!

http://valkyrie.smugmug.com/photos/281258773_RHHQw-M.jpg (http://valkyrie.smugmug.com/gallery/4558343_TSUxZ#281258773_RHHQw-A-LB)

[Rhinotherunt]

I took this on California's Pacfic Coast Highway 1 a bit north of Hearst Castle.

Have at it!


The image is divided into two. Top half and bottom half right across the middle. Typically when shooting landscapes you want your horizon to fall on one of the lines of interest based on the "Rule of Thirds".

[Miguel Delinquento]

This looks like a lovely place to have driven to. As a photograph it seems very snapshot-like to me. The shot's OK enough with decent color and sharpness, but I would not consider this a portfolio shot or one for the gallery. There is just not enough drama here.
As technical documentation this shot works as I see how the road was cut out of the cliffside quite nicely. But the wide-angle and straight-on perspective dissipates most energy from the scene. But we only get a hint of the crashing shore below. Additionally a cloudless blue sky may be warming and enlivening in real life, but photographically most are uninteresting in that they don't contain much depth for the eyes to follow.
That little car also bugs me.
Hope this helps.

M

[Cantfeelmyfingers]

I'm pretty much thinking the same thing as everyone else.
But i've gotta add on.. the little car is buggin' me; for some reason my eye automatically looked at this little miniscule speck lol

[Glenn NK]

Although the car is very small and obviously not too close to us, everything seems to lie in one vertical plane. I think what is missing are objects that stand out that are situated at various distances that would give us a feeling for distance (the third dimension).

The best landscapes include objects that are immediately in front of the camera (four to six feet away), in addition to distant ones.

There is really nothing that is the centre of attention, so that the strong diagonal lines lead the eye to the corners of the image and out of the picture so to speak.

I might suggest swinging the camera more towards the ocean and turning it to get a portrait orientation - so often missed by many of us. Not all landscapes should be horizontal. The steepness of the terrain suggests that vertical orientation would be preferred.

The portrait orientation might have included stronger objects such as rocks and water to contrast with the uniform greenery - uniform greenery doesn't provide much sense of drama. Just my take on it.

Landscapes rarely are at their most photogenic in mid-day - the Golden Hours (sunrise and sunset) model the shapes much better (giving a stronger sense of shape and distance), and the colour of the light is warmer which often provides better colours. Certainly the sky wouldn't be harmed by the Golden Hours - but this depends on where the sun is at the beginning/end of the day.

[Argos]

I guess I'll pile on, too.

I don't know what lens you used to photograph this, but agree that as long as the car's in the image, it should be central. Waiting for it to get further to the right along the road, and zooming in on it, would probably have resulted in something that looked less like a vacation snap-shot.

[timk519]

Whipee here - I'd like to thank everyone for all for your comments.

To answer the "what lens was used" - it was a stock Rebel XT 18-55/3-4 and the picture taken at 18mm, ISO 400, f/11, 1/400 sec.

On the charge of this being a "vacation shot" - guilty as charged. :rofl I was taking a rest in the middle of a 60 mile section of PCH1 that doesn't have any places to stop for the night when I took this picture, so being there for sunrise / sunset's not a current option, but something I can keep in mind for the future.

On the one hand, I'm glad to read that - technically speaking (ie sharpness, color, etc) - this shot came out relatively unscathed :D, but I still need to work on composition and indicating scale :deal. That the car got as much attention as it did was a bit of a surprise, as I barely noticed it.

On the issue of "drama" - I hear you, and while I have other shots with the crashing sea and the like, given the comments about "scale" and the not being in the AM or PM, they have the same problem, as well as what I would guess to be an insufficient DOF.

So, in this case, from the comments - other than cloning out the car, it doesn't sound like there's much that can be done with this image other than enjoy it for what it is and learn from the experience. :deal

Thanks again! :thumb