Neo-neocon, roving beach photographer: studies in sand
I’m not much of a photographer. And I almost always forget to bring a camera, so I just rely on my cellphone.
But I think these are pretty fine. They were taken recently in Ogunquit, Maine, by yours truly on a very lovely day.
…if your phone is your camera, pick up a Nokia Lumia 1020 if you get a chance.
They can still be found occasionally, in the $100 range (they’re a couple of years old).
There’s no better camera on a phone. Still. Probably won’t be for a couple or more generations.
…we have three, though I really screwed one of them up, aargh (by doing something totally stupid).
You won’t regret it.
“In such a way that the extremest band of seaweed shall escape my door by but a yard or two….”
You have a fine eye neo. It’s all about perception. Talent can be trained to a fine edge but the mind’s awareness determines what is ‘seen’.
My new LG G5 phone takes photos as large as my $600 Canon. The lens isn’t as good, but it does HDR automatically, whereas I have to cheat it with my Canon. Technology is great.
…but yes, as Geoffrey Britain notes, it’s more about what you choose (and how/when) to shoot than anything else. Nice shots!
Love your photos!
Who’s the mom carrying a tike?
Great photos Neo!
You should check out the Lake Superior shoreline in Michigan’s UP sometime.
Ira:
I haven’t a clue who that is. Just someone who happened to be on the beach that day. At Ogunquit, there’s a cliff walk above the beach, and I was on the cliff walk. Really wonderful place. The walk begins at Perkins Cove.
Good pictures, and not far from where my siblings live. On one trip to Maine I was amazed to see surfers in wet-suits riding the waves in late November. That is some hard-core surfing!
Neo, have you eaten at the Maine Diner in Wells? My sister and her husband took me there recently. Just because it’s popular doesn’t mean it isn’t good! For years, when I would visit from Texas, my sister would suggest going to Mexican restaurants. After enough feedback from me that while there may be a good Mexican/Tex Mex restaurant in New England, I had yet to find one, she finally got the message and concentrated on restaurants doing what New England does best- seafood.Though a Greek sandwich shop in the area was pretty good, also. [Where I grew up in NE, Greeks operated a lot of the pizza places.]
“Just someone who happened to be on the beach that day. At Ogunquit, there’s a cliff walk above the beach, and I was on the cliff walk.”
Great detail from such a distance!
They are beautiful, Neo. I love them both.
Indeed you do have a very, very good eye.
I briefly majored in photography in college, so while I’m an amateur, I know the basics of professional photography. “The difference between a professional and an amateur is that a professional is paid to produce results, not excuses” a professional photographer explaining the difference
In the first shot, the composition is very good. It avoided centering the woman and child, the most common mistake. Neither the woman nor child is posing being unaware of you and the child pointing outcsomething in the distance to the mother captures a tender moment. They add the interest of the human element, while also providing perspective on the size of the area photographed. It screams ‘seashore’ rather than ‘beach’. Exposure appears good.
The pics reveal you to have natural talent, i.e. a fine ‘eye’.
Differing with Geoff, I think that the bottom image is good. With a slightly different composition and angle, accentuating the contrast between the translucent color of the leaves and the black rocks it would have been virtual art.
Must have been morning? You can almost feel the kind of atmosphere.
Here’s something for you.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ColorizedHistory/
And since you have some connection with Russia, you might, if you have not already, comment on the three plate Czarist era color images. Some are really impressive. But maybe you already covered that.
Now, I think I’ll go back to the yard and try and keep out of the poison ivy. Sure hope that stuff I was pulling out was nightshade vines.
Didn’t realize that if you clicked it would enlarge … Geez …
I revise my opinion. The second one is even better than I thought.
Thanks to everyone who liked them!
Just to explain, however—I cropped the top image somewhat, from a larger shot. The bottom one is pretty much as is. So in terms of the composition of the first one, it was ex-post-facto. I find that cropping photos can tend to enhance them a lot.
DNW:
It wasn’t morning. You probably won’t see many photographs I take in the morning—I am not a morning person! It was about 3 or 4 in the afternoon, and the light conditions were really extraordinary. It was very luminous. It had been foggy, and there was still fog over the ocean far away, but it was very sunny where I was.
They are both very good; the second one I really like as it kind of invites me in to want to take a look.
Or maybe I’m still a kid that wants to rooting through the sand and turn over rocks to see what I can find?