Concrete Sentries Photo

Photographer’s Note

The day I thought Spring was here to stay, for a while or so i and many others thought! this particular day was filled with ghastly winds and was horribly cold so much so only the brave dared the outdoors. Decided to head to beach for some action images with the wind blasting at the sea. Although many were taken this one stood out and reminded me of 'Sentries' which i aptly named the title as 'concrete sentries'. whilst these concrete pillars stood against the blast of the howling high winds the brave on the beach were trying hard to keep both feet firmly on the ground.

In the background is the houtbay harbour village which on a good day has a different perspective. HBay Harbour village is a working harbour, with family - friendly beaches, good choice of restaurants overlooking the ocean, and also has some of the world's best land-based whale watching.

My choice of b&w is merely because the image itself did not have much colour tone. converting to b&w gave a different perspective for me.

Enjoy..

ISO 1600 Shutter 1/3000 @ F/5.6

Miks, ChrisJ, ruisc_pt has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Miks (1707) 2007-09-18 16:02

I love the composition because it has so many elements. The foreground, the figures, the perspective given by the wave and the village in the background. The relative smallness of the figures emphasizes the grandness of the scene. There are a few problems in my view. The big dark area behind the village does not really contribute (perhaps an angle including more of the foreground might have been better?). The greyscale is not so interesting (working with levels in photoshop might help). Finally, the pic is overall a little soft (should be sharpenable in postproccesing). That said, it is a very nice image!

Best,
Mikkel

ribeiroantonio (22058) 2007-09-18 19:09

Just came back from Southern Africa last week. We, my wife and I, had a wonderful time in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana, not forgetting two good days in Jo’burg. Could not make it to Cape Town but it will happen late in November next year (I hope).
Your photo is very good and I can see that one of those concrete things could not stand the power of the wind!!! I like the way shows ao strong the wind was. The B&W is good too. Well done.
Antonio

rbcy1974 (20746) 2007-09-21 11:02

Hello Lynette
This is an interesting setting. You got the pillars, the mother and son and the nice houses behind, the black and white though is not very strong it lacks some contrast.
Regards
Daniel

ChrisJ (70521) 2007-10-29 5:57

Hi Lynette

Good repetition of the circular concrete pylons, with marvellous tonal range, in this outstanding b&w image. Tfs!

ruisc_pt (6213) 2007-11-02 14:00

incredible sharpness... with these values Lynette,,,
SO 1600 Shutter 1/3000 @ F/5.6
tfs.-
R