"West Coast Black & White", a photo from British Columbia, Western

Photographer's Note

A shot from the archives as I peruse through my old West Coast (Vancouver Island) shots.
Hard to believe this was a July morning as the fog had yet to burn off-making for prime B&W conditions (with lack of color, I generally try to focus more on shading and detail).

It's really quite interesting to see how your own personal style changes as you learn more.

The sharpness on this shot is not as bad as some of the others in the same batch- but back then it wasn't something that concerned me nearly as much as it does today. Maybe it's that my standards weren't as high, or maybe it's that I'm now more paranoid that the equipment I paid up for isn't up to scratch, or maybe it's simply the fact that I clearly wasn't thinking and shot this 'landscape' shot (so to speak) on f/2.8 (shallow DOF) which is NOT something I'd be doing nowadays...

However, through the advances in modern technology (ie:Photoshop) I was able to tweak it to my liking.

The interesting texture on the rock is from the barnacles growing on them...

I hope you like the shot,
- Dan

P.S.- for more shots from Vancouver Islands West Coast- check my Travelogue!

fabio_ts, cknara, gelor, Dyerco has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

fabio_ts (13696) 2008-05-21 5:02

Hey Dan, what a great work here, the B&W makes this picture so attractive, and you have also really well composed it, excellent!!!

have a nice day,
Fabio.

cknara (556) 2008-05-21 5:12

Nice landscape shot.I like the b/w choice.To me it looks like
the photo is quite sharper than usual.

gelor (3233) 2008-05-21 9:06

Bonsoir Daniel,
Un beau traitement pour cette image en N&B ! Je serai curieux de voir en WS l'image en couleur pour comparer. En tout cas bravo !
Gérard

Dyerco (10185) 2008-05-22 6:47

Hi Dan
This image has good DOF for F2.8 but I find that the point and shoots have that ability. I like the opposing textures of the rocks and sand and as you say the B&W works best here. I hope to get a few of these in mid June when we visit Long Beach.
Phil

kensimage (8563) 2008-05-24 14:48

Nice composition and you managed the B/W tones well, Dan. Great textural contrast. I do think the texture on the right side is so strong it's a bit harsh and hard to look at. Probably nothing you could have done about that, it's just the way the plants look. Regards, Ken.

Nelu_Goia (3116) 2008-07-02 9:05

Hi Dan,
This is quite an original shot,in my opinion.
It is hard to tell or to guess the colors but I might have tried something else: using the channel mixer maybe, I would have made the sky darker and the sea lighter.
If the sky was grayish, that would have been a challenge because in a almost black and white photo all three channels look the same, right?
About the sharpening, I don`t know… the right side of the photo seems to me pretty harsh but sharpening is something like the tooth brush: very personal.
I have noticed a discrete watermark on the water; cool!:)
Thanks,
Nelu