It's been my experience that it's easy to get an 'acceptable' shot of a boat or ship, just hard to get a great one. I'll keep trying for the fun of it, but maybe the environment is the thing that can put an image over the top. San Diego's smoky skies might help - taken early morning.

Comments are always appreciated!

-GB

The middle image is the one that works for me, I like it MUCH better than the adjusted image in your other post.

I like the touch of color in the flag, the clutter of the boats and the nice background. The dark exposure and the bright yellow sun is good here too.

MB -- Thanks for commenting. I get the feeling that sometimes the larger image wins. Many of the shots I see on the forum, I think that if they were presented larger than 640 px, they would display better. I wish they'd increase the max size to at least 800 pixels (Yo Administrators! What can ya do here?)

I really had to clip (crop) that middle image btw - there was some lines or something on the left that needed to go.

GB

i went down to a marina the other day for the exercise and i couldn't decide what to do about the top of the masts.

is it okay to cut them off or does that spoil the shot.

there isn't always room to get them in and it seems as though cutting them off mid way or wherever leaves the shot lacking something.
is there a "right or wrong' thing with boats. (usually they have so much mast that up close doesn't work unless you have a wide angle)

need some help please as i want to go back there were so many things to shoot.

cheers

I like the potential in all of these shots and they work to an extent. I don't think that the tops of the masts need be included, but i do feel that all of these could benefit from opening up the crop some more. I just feel as though they are closed in a bit much. Like the exposures and setting here.

3L, I don't know what the answer is there. Perhaps if you got very very close with a wide angle, from a low angle, you could get it all in. But that would be a specialty shot. Like Gary said, not sure a mast has to be in the shot...... There's no rule on that.

The above is sort of like the question of whether a portrait has to have the person's full arms. In that situation, the 'rule' is to not clip off the arms at the joints. Perhaps there's some similar way to handle boat masts?

Gary, they are kind of tight. I actually cropped them because they were showing some foreground horizontals and left side pier stuff that wasn't very aesthetic.

Btw, what's the chance that the forums can allow images of > 640 pixels? 800 would be nice.

GB

The middle image is the winner as far I go..I love the city in back ground with the suns unique color and the haze...I think if it was a little bit more vibrant, then it would be a wall hanger...As for the pixels, if you use image shack, you can post an 800 pixel pic no problem..