Blowout, study

When I first glanced at this I thought it was water.
I like the textures evident in the dunes there is however a lot of white space which
doesn't do much for me.

Just my humble opinion not sure if it is helpful?

Good on you to experiment, pushing the edges of creativity is never a bad thing. This however does not personally appeal to me. Not saying it wouldn't work for some folks though. I've stranger things hanging in high end galleries for thousands of dollars!

How daring of you Jim to post some blown out sky here. You are brave!

I like the odd feel in the dune but maybe a little less white in the top?

Honestly, I really like this Jim, especially the way the grasses stand out against the sky.

I like the composition and the concept you have here. I wish you could see more detail in the vegetation though.

crop off top to make a square and a touch more luminosity in the ground bit? Just my 2c! I like the grass details against the sky!

like it. it somehow speaks to me. (I wish my own photos would do that more often! )
Georg

like it. it somehow speaks to me. (I wish my own photos would do that more often! )
Georg

I love the processing, Jim. The comp isn't sitting quite right with me though. I think there is a bit too much sky, and the image just feels too heavy in the bottom left. I'm glad you posted this. I love seeing non-typical images on NPN.

I like this a lot Jim, and like also that you're experimenting. Always nice to try something different. I might crop a bit off the top, but that's minor.

This is great! How wonderful to see something fresh in ESS. I love all the white space--your dune crests in the bottom third of the image, so compositionally the 2/3 of white at the top is balanced by the dark bottom third. Uncomfortable for many, but compositionally sound IMO. I really like the moode to this and look forward to more of your daring work.

I love this. I do think perhaps alittle more contrast in the dune.
Haven't been out to Fire Island in a year. great place to shoot.
look foward to more shots like this.

Wow! Thanks for all the comments. This image received a much stronger response than I expected, which speaks well for its impact. I really liked the way the experiments were progressing and I am pleased by the reception here with my first post from the series. Very good constructive comments, too.

The greatest number of comments regard the amount of sky in the frame. The comp is balanced, but most are unaccustomed to large empty fields in an image, something I happen to use often. The 'blown out' sky is intentional and unique to this image so far. Others in the series retain some cloud detail or at least a smooth gradient, but I was going for 'extra stark' here. Framing is affected by the 'full frame' ratio of the 5D, as this is uncropped. That said, I had played with a more typical 4:3 ratio (think 11 X 14) by trimming a bit from the sky *and* the forground. This retains the balance, and brings the eye a bit more strongly to the image details, but loses some of the visual space that I find appealing. I'll post the cropped version for comparison later when I am home.

The details suffer a bit in the compression of the image for posting. There is far more visible in the print version, but it is a bit of a difficult balancing act in the processing between retaining detail and retaining the full effect of the high contrast punch, especially at the grass/sky intersection. Some additional judicial dodging might improve that a bit.

This was fun!

Thanks again for the the excellent comments!

I've incorporated the suggestions from the comments as follows: Overall crop to a 4:3 aspect ratio and discreet dodging to bring out a bit more foreground detail. Here is the result.

Innovative and very appealing, Jim. Too bad the thumb doesn't look better. This larger version really makes clicking the thumb well worth it.

May be the hour, but I see a face. Paws or a paw. Ears perked up. Crouched, ready to pounce. Or just stalking. It must be the hour. After all, it is sand. And grass. Not the kind one smokes. Very graphic. Which can be interpreted as - artistic. Not necessarily photographic. Yet photographic

Fire Island? Long Island - New York? Oh boy. To be continued? The dialogue that is? And the series?

Jim,

Fantastic image. The contrast works so well here. The blank empty sky contrast well with the detail textured duen and grass. Very neat.