Breaking all the Rules!

[Didache]

Hi all

This is an image, called "Red Sails", which I shot today in Brighton (on the south coast of England). It breaks a lot of rules I think, but I rather like it.

Any comments are very welcome.

Cheers
Mike

[gahspidy]

It does not break too many rules that I know of. Everything is placed rather well. I think you have a whole lotta space on the left that may or may not be needed. I rather like the use of negative space, but this may look a little stronger with a lsight crop. Also would look rather well in a vertical shot with the two pier poles symetrical.
I like it, Mike. Very arts composition that works for me.

[SmartWombat]

I don't see much rule breaking ?
The horizon is close to 1/3
The piles are about 1/3
The boat isn't, but I see that as a good thing.
Made me think of Mondrian.

[Dylan8i]

i think it works well and is a very pleasing image

[MB1]

Actually there is only one rule, "Take Good Photos."

You followed the rule.

Besides, you did a good job on exposure/color balance/horizon placement/Rule of Thirds.

[readingr]

Excellent work Mike very minimalistic, I could see this hanging in a new apartment or show house, or an office.

Roger

[LeeIs]

3 words.

I Love It.

[Greg McCary]

I really like it too. But just curious. What rules did you break? Teach me something.

[jkriminger]

very nice..I don't think an adjustment with levels on the green of the ocean would hurt it.

[Xia_Ke]

A fantastic shot Mike. I'm not sure how many "rules" were really broken but...

“There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.” Ansel Adams

...right? :wink5: :thumbsup:

[Frog]

At first, I thought it could use a slight crop at bottom but not after looking at it more.
I love all the empty space. I was in a waiting room for many hours today with various artists prints on the walls and the one that drew my eye the most was very minimalist like this.
Another great one, Mike!

[Didache]

Thanks guys for all your kind words. It's much apreciated. I thought I had something a little special here, and you have confirmed it. Sometimes it's hard to be your own critic.

The story is this: Tom and myself were looking over an old ruined pier which was destroyed a few years ago. The sea was like glass and the light was almost evening-light even though it was only around 1pm. Suddenly this boat with red sails appeared - a gift if ever there was one. The god of photography were smiling down! So I shot quite a few with the red sails in conjunction with the pier, with people, with the beach, etc.

In terms of breaking the rules, OK I didn't break too many of them really! The lines are on the thirds and so on. However, my own compositional technique involves filling empty space (for instance, see the way I included the smaller plant on the right in the Skylark image in the Viewfinder thread of this trip), so the the inclusion of negative space was definitely a breaking of my own rules, as was so tightly cropping to the right.

Even so, I have tweaked it just slightly. I have taken off just a little of the space, levelled the horizon (which was just slightly off), cloned out a little hanging thing on the left-hand pole, and added just a touch to blue to mitigate the green of the sea. It prints up well too.

Thanks again for your encouragement.
Mike