An August Oceanscape!
I've had a nutty schedule for the past few months so I've been more than a little delinquent in contributing to NPN - sorry 'bout that! My participation over the next 6 weeks won't be a whole lot better, but following that I should be able to get back into the groove with regular posts...
Anyway, I captured this image on a misty, moody morning in August of 2013 while on my annual
"Humpbacks, Orcas, Sea Lions and More" aquatic mammals photo tour.
We intentionally sought out this location on this morning. We knew the small rocky islands were often blanketed with soft mist - and we also knew that the amount of feed in the water often attracted Humpback Whales (and a lot of seabirds that also keyed in on the feed). What we hadn't counted on was encountering a humpback that had developed its own laid-back way of feeding. For those that don't know, humpbacks are filter-feeders that often capture their small prey by lunging at the surface of the ocean - an activity that is dramatic and must consume a whole lot of energy. This whale, in contrast, utilized the new and improved method of feeding known as the "lollygag" technique - it simply floated vertically with its mouth wide open and passively drifted around. Now I don't know how successful this new-fangled fishing technique was, but I can attest to the fact that the whale didn't waste a whole lot of energy in trying it out (and...who knows - maybe this whale was just bagging a few Z's and figured he/she might as well try to nab a snack along the way!). What I do know is that this "lazy" behaviour on the part of the humpback sure did make it a whole lot easier to compose the image than if it was doing "normal" lunge feeding!
Subject: Lollygagging Humpback Whale (
Megaptera novaeagnliae) just hangin'
Location:Blackfish Sound (northern Vancouver Island), BC, Canada
Camera: Nikon D800e
Lens: AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f4 VR @ 185mm - hand-held from floating sailboat. VR on and in "Normal" mode.
Exposure: 1/400s @ f8; ISO 100. No compensation compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.
Crop: None horizontally (full frame across) with slight crop from top and bottom
As always, there's a whole lot more background info about this image - on my website. Because even at 1200 pixels images like this don't have their full impact, I've posted a 2400 pixel on my website (under the "In the Field" tab if you follow the link below):
http://www.naturalart.ca/galleries/latest/.
Comments and critiques welcomed - probably best to view the larger version prior to doing so!
Cheers...
Brad
Comments
12 commentsI normally don't find myself in a position to critique your processing, but on my monitor it does seem that trees on the island lack contrast, as though they were "brought up" a bit too much. If that's a byproduct of the morning mist it makes sense, but it seems like a processing choice (the rocks below look fine).
Max
Thanks for the feedback on this image. It was quite the morning...natural eye candy for a good hour - gotta like that!
A few specific responses:
1. To Max: Feel free to critique my image processing! In this case I went back to my original capture and my layered mastered file to have a look at the image (after reading your comment). I did selectively boost the contrast on those trees in question in two different places in my workflow - it simply WAS a very low contrast situation with the trees on the island (and most of the trees there were close in tonal value).
2. Gary: About the 50:50 split (sky vs. non-sky): Always a judgment call - but in this case I considered that there were two dominant elements in the image - the whale and the island (and that horizon wasn't even a distant third). Consequently I chose to ignore the compositional guideline about placing the horizon on the midline and focused on the positioning of the two key elements in the composition (both during image capture and in the final crop). The original does have more room on top and bottom, but in my view including more of either of those (which pulled the horizon out of the mid-line) did more harm to the image than the horizon on mid-line did. Hey - they're compositional guidelines, not rules - right?
Your "low saturation" comment made me smile...you must have been listening to one of my rants about overdone HDR and excessive colour saturation in certain genres of nature photography!
Cheers all...
Brad
Congrats on the WP!
Sandy
Thanks for the feedback. Not really sure who you're agreeing with about more contrast improving the image - the only thing said about contrast was Max's pondering about a little more contrast on just the trees on the island (which I responded to). I normally wouldn't say anything in response to your comment, but I think in this case adding contrast to the image would have a very negative effect on what it's portraying - it's a misty, foggy scene and it's real important that there's a gradient in contrast from the foreground (higher contrast where the whale and birds are) to the mid-ground and background. Bumping contrast would kill that effect and take away the "painterly" look that was present when I captured the image (and what the image is all about).
Anyway...just my 2 cents worth...if you think you'd prefer the image with more contrast - well, that's your opinion and totally fine - personal preference is personal preference!
Cheers...
Brad