Early Morning Ride on a Sunday Morning (not me, the rider in the boat). ;-)

Taken while out fishing on July 24, 2005 at 8:15AM

From the banks of the Ogeechee River near Guyton, GA.

Ultra sharp picture!

Only thing I can think of is it would be nicer to have the guy in the boat a little more in the frame.

-- Terry

This one was takenat full zoom (117mm equivalent) with a little Konica KD-510z pocket camera, with the ISO speed bumped up totry and keep shutter speeds up (this one was at 1/200 second at ISO 200, whereas this camera defaults to ISO 50 without a flash).

I took about 5 in a row as the boat passed by. But, this one was the only one that was really acceptable. There are some limbs and brush all across where the boat is now. So, it would have been difficult to see the person's face or more of the boat, until they came out on the other side of it.

You may be right though... if I could have gotten hiim just a little further right it maybe better (but the speed of this camera doesn't lend itself well to capturing a moving subject at just the right point). So, this was about as close as I could get it.

The best place to see the boat would probably be as it's in the opening on the right side of the frame. I got a couple of shots with it just past that point (grrrr...cycle times coupled with my poor timing). But, even if I had captured "just right"there, I'm not sure I'd like it with it leaving versus entering the scene.

I wasn't as pleased with the ones I got with the boat just past that point. You can't see it now. But, there was actually a white dog standing on the bow of the boat, too. It would have made a good one for our Funny Photos forum if I would have gotten a better capture of it. :-)

It's a very light crop (primarly for aspect ratio). So, I've got some "wiggle room" with it to show more of the trees (with the horizon/boat lower in the image, and less of the glare in the lower right bottom for an 8x10. But, I'm not sure I like that composition as well.

No corrections to color, contrast, brightness, etc. have been made yet. It was cropped to *roughly* the aspect ratio you'd need for an 8x10" print, then downsized using Irfanview, then very lightly sharpened using their built in sharpening algorithm set to +10. That's it so far. Nothing fancy yet.I'll probably "spruce it up some", use a bit of USM, etc. before printing it.

I like the light you get this time of morning at this location. It's where you'll find me sometimes very early on a Sunday morning, since this iswhere my is where my brother-in-law fishes from every Sunday morning beginning at sunrise (he likes to get there early). He lives on 8 acres at the Ogeechee River near Guyton, GA.

So, I'm trying to figure out what may work better for this particular scene if the opportunity arises again. The glare looks a bit bright in the lower right hand corner of the image. But, I'm not sure I'd like the composition as much trying to crop it out for an 8x10 (which would make the horizon appear lower on the image). The way the light/glare leads up into the trees is also interesting to me. But, I'm wondering if it's a bit too *much* for it (hence one reason I posted it here to get some feedback)

The waterline was actually *very* high when I took this one. The trees you see just in front of the boat are where we normally fish from. So, I'm not sure I'll have another opportunity to get this same shot until we have a lot of rain and flooding around here. But, I may be able to get something close to it a little further down the river banks.

I've got lots more (and quite a few with film, too) at this location. But, for some reason this one really appeals to me (probably the boat in it, coupled with the light/reflections on the water).

JimC wrote:

(one frame every 1.2 seconds in continuous mode until the card is full -- no buffer at all). So, getting it this close was more luck than anything else, even with focus and exposure locked for the shots.:-)


P.S.

Keep any feedback coming and perhaps I can get some better keepers next time.

This is one of my favorite locations to take photos (mostly of friends and family while they're fishing).

I'll bet I've got 10 rolls of film from there I still need to get processed from more recent trips (yep, I bring a35mm camera along often, despite this new fangled digital stuff). LOL

I'll might even be back there early in the morning to start taking even more if the weather permits.

To give you an idea of what the location looked like at the time, see THIS PICTURE (my brother-in-law's next door neighbor's son standing on the banks).

Note the picnic table in the upper right? That's the normal bank for the river here. The larger tree you see is the same one in the photo I posted above.

Looks a tad sharp here but will print real nice.

Good natural color and reflection in the shot as well as the boat and rider coming into the view of the picture adds to it. If not for that it would have been just another picture.

vIZnquest wrote: Thanks. I love the colors from this little Konica. I wouldn't trade it for any other pocket camera made (even though it'sa bit more than a couple of years old now since I bought it in July 2003).

I used irrfanview to sharpen it quickly for posting after downsizing. I'll go with a little better PP for printing.

Yes.. I have alot of photos I took at the same time, and the boat really seems to make a huge difference. So, I think this one is one I'll try to print as large as possible (I've got 5MP to work with before any cropping, and this one is very lightly cropped).

Are the reflections a little too much in the lower right (they seem to add to it since the lead up towards the tree, but they are a little bright there)?

I could lose some of them at the expense of lowering the horizon a little with more treetops at the top of the image. But, I thought the boat was low enough in the image already, trying it a few different ways.

I myself would keep it the way it is. Makes for the shot being real and natural.

I like reflections but it should not look like a mirror shot in this one with the exception of the boat and rider.

In fact, it adds to it much like the boat and rider.

i wish the boat rider was in the foreground water.. as it is now, when looking at this, if i hadn't read the title, i would have thought him to be a distraction rather than the main subject.. but i guess you can't control where he drives his boat..

to me the shot is more in the reflections in the water and their symmetry with the island in the middle.. unfortunately both of them are cropped off rather awkwardly.. maybe, and just maybe, getting closer to the bank and going as wide as possible and going vertical would allow you to do something with it.. i know this is way off course of the original photo, but just throwing out ideas..

watch your sharpening too, you have overdone it a bit on this one, the artifacts are quite visible even at this resolution.. i might boost the saturation a tad on this one as well, not overdoing it, but just enough to bring out the subtle differences in the vegetations shades of green..

----------------
dustin

www.hardwickphotos.com

Thanks...

I'll try to "spruce it up" some before getting it printed (I haven't touched it yet except for light cropping, downsizing and a quicksharpening with irfanview using +10 before posting it here -- not the best method for getting great looking images). LOL

I just happened to be looking through some albums yesterday and it caught my eye and I thought... hmmm, that one might make a nice print, and thought I'd see what you guys thought.

I'll probably just leave the crop about the way it is unless anyone else thinks differently -- only adjusting as needed for the print size.

Ok -- I took a few minutes and spruced it a little bit (a bit of noise removal, and this that and the other).;-)

Iwent a bit easier on the sharpening (but I may want tochange it or even do apass or too more later for printing), and I may have it a touch too contrasty now.

I had cropped more than I remembered, too.

Here it is with no crop (downsized only after tweaking it a little bit).

Looking at the original again, now I'm thinking that more of the tree on the left side would be better left in -- perhaps cropping a bit from the right side instead.

Ithink I was trying to get the boat a bit higher or perhaps get rid of more mossisthe reason I had started cropping itthat way to begin with. But, getting rid of more of the right side may be better. I don't like the softness of the moss in the upper left corner, though.

Any thoughts (this is no crop at all yet, downsized to 800x600)?

Thanks in advance!