Phantom lake

[crystalb]

I should probably put more of my pics in this section :) The trees are bugging me the most.....blurry
Have at'er

[tirediron]

Hmmm... lots of potential here, unfortunately, there a couple of technical issues. The first is the focus that you already mentioned, and second is the exposure. I'd like to see this at least 2/3 stop brighter overall. I suspect that this is an image that might have worked very well as an HDR. You've made good use of the wood in the jetty as a source of leading lines, but there's not much to hold the interest of the eye when it gets to the middle of the image.

[Mad Aussie]

I agree with TI pretty much here.
The jetty needs to be the feature to hold interest and to do that it needs to be a bit brighter and a bit sharper. The lack of sharpness though is probably the compression the site does when you attach a large image. I think if you keep it under 250kb it remains much sharper.

If you take this same photo with a strong sunset/sunrise then you'd get a very nice photo because the jetty's lines would lead us to the colour in the sky and back.

[Jason]

I agree about the focus. I don't know what aperture you used, but maybe a longer exposure and smaller aperture would tighten the trees up a bit. Very nicely composed though!

[Mad Aussie]

Please feel free to edit my photos
Well ok ;)

Here's kinda what I see ...
http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u104/Mad-Aussie/09%20photographyca/july-dec09/crystalb-1.jpg

I could have done better with the original of course but I think gives an idea of how a sharper jetty with more brightness and colour to it becomes a reasonable feature for the photo and leads the eye out to the colour in the sky.
The blurry trees are no longer a problem I don't think. Some may disagree. :)

[AcadieLibre]

The adjustments Mad made really do not help it. I think the idea of the photograph was good but the final print just not a keeper. No real visual appeal, sometimes we all do photos we want to like but for some reason the photo we wanted and the one we get are not the same.

[Iguanasan]

I would be interested in knowing what your settings were. ISO, f-stop, shutter speed? While we can debate over the overall interest in the photo the technical stuff is more relevant to you at this point, I think.

If that location holds special meaning for you then the photo might mean a lot more to you than to others who just see a jetty, water and some trees. I would like to help you take the best shot of that jetty that you can.

[crystalb]

Thanks for all the help guys!
I think MA's rendering looks much better with the shot I provided. The subject, will be something I have to work on :p

ISO- 100
F- 5.6
Shutter- 1/15

And NO it is not with a tripod ;) This weekend:fingerscr

[Iguanasan]

...
Shutter- 1/15

And NO it is not with a tripod ;) This weekend:fingerscr

Well, at least you know now why it's fuzzy.

Had you adjusted to ISO 400 you could have bumped up the shutter speed to like 1/60 and you may have gotten the shot you were looking for. Or ISO 200 and 1/15 on a tripod.

If you don't have a tripod you should try a "string-pod" - string tripod (http://www.xs4all.nl/~wiskerke/artikelen/string.html)

[jlabel]

I think the composition if too simple, tho I liked the sub exposition