Henry Heerschap  

Samish River by Henry Heerschap

December 2019 - Samish River

December 2019 - Henry Heerschap

Original

About the Image(s)

I shot this nearly a year ago in the Skagit Valley region of Washington
State, about 60 miles north of Seattle. The Skagit Valley is one of my
favorite areas to explore with a camera.

With this image, I like the overall composition as well as individual
elements. I like the three pier posts as well as the wrecked boat
contrasting with the much nicer boat across from it. The colors are
quite muted and I don't think they add much, so I decided to process it
as a monochrome.

It was shot handheld with a Sony A7R III with a 24-105 f/4 lens. 1/40
sec, f/13, ISO 125, 38mm. No filter.
Processing was done in Lightroom Classic. Highlights were brought down,
shadows opened up. I set a black point with the Blacks slider, white
point with Whites. I also bumped up Dehaze a bit. For the Black & White
mix, I moved the Blue slider down a bit to darken the distant hills and
give the sky a bit more texture. The rightmost pier was leaning to the
right, so I used Lightroom's Upright tool to straighten it out. Finally,
I sharpened a bit and added a small post-crop vignette.

This round’s discussion is now closed!
12 comments posted

Tom Pickering   Tom Pickering
(Groups 0 & 53)
Welcome to DD and to Mono group 11, Henry! You certainly started off with a bang! Great composition, detail, exposure and tonal range. Your mono conversion turns a nice shot into a real winner, leveraging the tones in the original that are lost in the muted colors. This is finished enough that I have no suggestions to make.   Posted: 12/14/2019 16:17:03
Henry Heerschap   Henry Heerschap
Thanks for the kind words, Tom.   Posted: 12/14/2019 16:21:34
 
Welcome Henry! Such a lovely shot with all points of interest sharp and as Tom noted, the tonal range is lovely. Well done with your handheld skills! My only suggestion is a tiny crop left and bottom to lose the bush that just takes my eye away from wrecked boat. Its an image that if it was a large print in a waiting room I would happily spend my time taking in all of the elements that you captured. Nice work :)   Posted: 12/14/2019 21:27:05
Henry Heerschap   Henry Heerschap
Thanks, Sharron. I debated about that bush, but was reluctant to lose too much of the boathouse. I'll take another look.
I'm planning on printing this for our club's print competition next month, so we'll see how many elements my fellow members pick up on. It's always fun for me to take a photo like this, get home, and discover lots of details I didn't see at the time. I almost missed the Great Blue Heron standing by the wreck near the bow. Fortunately, I spotted him in time to take several photos with him as main subject.   Posted: 12/15/2019 19:57:50
Comment Image
 
It still took me some time to find the Heron after you said were he was. Stunning bird, so so serious in his pose. Good luck with the club comp. No doubt that this image will promote healthy discussion!   Posted: 12/18/2019 18:18:39
Lisa Hlavinka   Lisa Hlavinka
Nice image Henry. There is a lot going on in the frame, but I like how converting to monochrome makes it all come together and gives serenity to the shot. Great textures and reflections.   Posted: 12/15/2019 21:09:14
Allen Tucker   Allen Tucker
I agree with all the praise from my colleagues. Good contrast and detail throughout the range of tones shows skillful processing and should make a beautiful print.   Posted: 12/15/2019 23:40:21
Jim Hagan   Jim Hagan
I very much like the overall composition but felt the image was too flat - not enough contrast. I thought the sky and the water should have more detail. In my revision I increased the contrast and cropped off some of the bushes from the left side and just a slight amount from the bottom.   Posted: 12/17/2019 20:38:08
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Henry Heerschap   Henry Heerschap
Jim - thanks for taking the time to comment and process the image. I'm coming around on cropping in from the right. I think you may have cropped in too much from the bottom, at least to my taste. As to the change in contrast, I find it changes the overall mood of the image to something other than what I intended. It certainly shows how much post-processing can affect the mood of an image. Still, it gives me much to think about and that's what I was hoping for in joining this group.   Posted: 12/18/2019 11:43:10
 
Great peaceful composition, but I agree with Jim and his revision shows what I'd like to suggest. Furthermore, pic could be cropped a bit from the left end just after the boat.   Posted: 12/18/2019 07:51:40
 
I like the serenity of the image. To me it suggests the quiet after the storm with the new boat surviving and the old going to its rest. Good tonal range and pleasing contrast. A well balanced image with the posts dividing the old from the new.   Posted: 12/29/2019 16:52:47
Henry Heerschap   Henry Heerschap
Thanks, Victor. I think you captured what I was going for in this image.   Posted: 12/31/2019 19:12:10