All of the images below are unaltered shots...all of them could benefit from some mild to medium Photoshop work. They are presented in the order they were taken on the hike.
Gull & BoatFuji FinePix S602, 46.8mm, 1/450 @f/6.3, ISO 200
It's clear that this shot exhibits some tilt, and since I have a nasty habit of taking shots slightly out-of-true, I would understand if you thought it was unintentional. However, in this case, that would be incorrect. I intentionally tilted this one to add a bit of drama. This is a fairly popular technique called "Dutch tilt". Actually, Dutch tilt is technically 35 degrees from the horizontal, but I've heard the term applied to any off-kilter shot that achieves the intended effect.
I think this shot would be improved by cropping out a good deal of the right side of the image, maybe down to the proportions of a vertical. Cutting it down somewhat will give the boat and the bird a kind of yin-yang balance. Unfortunately, since this was a fairly low resolution (3MP) compact, I'm not sure how much cropping it will withstand if I ever decide I like it enough to print it.
Seems a bit hazy...if I ever do get it into PS, I'm going to have to see what I can do about that as well.
Dead Willow WaterfallFuji FinePix S602, 11.6mm, 1/280 @f/4, ISO 200
I saw these dead willow branches and took a couple of shots; this was the one I liked the most. They seem to be doing their best impression of a waterfall.
Golden Gate Bridge from California Coastal TrailFuji FinePix S602, 8.9 mm, 1/450 @f/8, ISO 200
Yet another shot of the Golden Gate Bridge--this landmark seems to be an inescapable element of photos when you're near it with a camera. The trick is to try to do something that hasn't been done before. The dark foreground elements create an interesting frame for the scene. Yet another Rule-of-Thirds shot with the bridge dividing the upper third. It's too bad the clouds weren't cooperating that day. This shot would have benefitted from bright blue sky with white fluffies.
Note the extreme barrel distortion in the shot; one more reason on the list of why I upgraded from a compact. The natural arch of the bridge itself accentuates this, but even if the span were dead level all the way across, it would still be visible to the naked eye.
Golden Gate Bridge from California Coastal Trail IIFuji FinePix S602, 10.6 mm, 1/200 @f/11, ISO 200
Is this a good shot? I don't know...I kind of like it. I'm not sure if it would've been improved had I included the roots of the foreground plant. Just trying to do a variation on the last shot, and it turned out fairly well. I like the way the waves and the leaves of this plant give away the direction and force of the wind, but the plant itself insists on growing directly into it. (Do plants naturally grow against a constant force? Is that how seeds know to grow upwards out of the ground, because they're going against gravity?)
Fractal Rock FaceFuji FinePix S602, 16.7mm, 1/450 @f/5.6, ISO 200
Neat rock face. A sense of scale is intentionally denied the viewer--you can just as easily imagine a person standing on one of those little craggies as an ant. Fractals, anyone?
I'll spoil the mystery under the next image.
Ocean FisherFuji FinePix S602, 46.8mm, 1/480 @f/6.3, ISO 200
As if to provide evidence that Fractal Rock Face could indeed have been stories tall, I soon came upon this ocean fisherman perched on the edge of a precipice. (I hope he didn't hook anything big, or it seems as if he might be in for a swim.)
In fact, Ocean Fisher is a good contrast image for Fractal Rock Face--as it happens, Fractal Rock Face only captures about a 3' x 2' area of rock. (Told you I'd spoil the mystery.)
Trail BerryFuji FinePix S602, 7.8mm, 1/300 @f/4.5, ISO 200
Looks like a raspberry, but I definitely wasn't adventurous enough (or stupid enough) to eat it.
I should've taken this shot at wide-open aperture to do as much blurring of the background as possible. Dropping to f/2.8 on a compact wouldn't have done much, but something's better than nothing. With my new camera I'd have put on my 50mm f/1.8 lens and gotten the shot I was really after.
Orange FlowersFuji FinePix S602, 7.8mm, 1/420 @f/8, ISO 200
I included this shot as an example of colorimetric range. I remember taking this shot because these flowers were a blazing orange under the afternoon sun. Sadly, the color reproduction of the sensor in this camera did not duplicate the many shades in this tiny bit of the spectrum, and the flowers lost some of their brilliance as a result. You can see this in the intensely colored areas of the shot that appear as if they're "burned out," which is usually a term that is reserved for areas that go to pure white with a complete loss of detail due to overexposure. In this case, it's the same story--complete loss of detail because of oversaturation of a particular color.
I probably could have gotten a bit more out of it if I'd slightly overexposed the shot--it appears I did the opposite and slightly underexposed it, which is the norm when trying to create an image with deeply saturated colors. Well, the technique worked...it saturated the colors well beyond what the sensor in that particular camera could manage.
Fuji FinePix S602, 7.8mm, 1/480 @f/5.6, ISO 200I like this shot a lot. Something about the way the stalk bends under the weight of its seeds makes them seem heavier than they actually are.
Another shot that would've been improved by using a wide-open aperture; another shot that would've joined the 50mm f/1.8 club if I'd had it at the time. Considering the main subject of this image, there's way too much visual noise around it in the background.
Fuji FinePix S602, 7.8mm, 1/480 @f/5, ISO 200This shot is a great example of how to work within the limitations of your equipment. In the last shot, I couldn't get any closer to the main subject because it was hanging well above me and I didn't have a stool handy. With this one, though, I could get close, and get close was what I did to blur the background and ensure focus on the main subject. Note the aperture--if you can get close enough, you don't even have to open up all the way.
Overgrown TrailFuji FinePix S602, 7.8mm, 1/480 @f/5, ISO 200
These were my four hiking compatriots. From left to right: my sister-in-law, my brother, my fiancee, and our friend Amy. Parts of the trail were quite overgrown, which provided an interesting shot now and then of our hiking party for anyone lagging behind.
If you look carefully at the upper right, you'll see that someone else managed to get in this shot...until this shot finds its way into Photoshop, that is. :-)
Ocean OverlookFuji FinePix S602, 11.6mm, 1/450 @f/7, ISO 200
"Most people look at things as they are and ask, 'Why?' I look at things as they might be and ask, 'Why not?'"
Sorry, but admit it...this shot is just begging to be made into a poster with a cheesy caption.
Stony BeachFuji FinePix S602, 12.7mm, 1/750 @f/8, ISO 200
Something about those stones makes for a visually interesting shot. I would've liked a slightly higher vantage point if I were to reshoot this one. I like how the boulders with the crashing waves are positioned, but I'd have preferred to make the horizon higher. Something about the way the mountain ridge in the background almost grazes the top of the left boulder takes some life out of the shot.
Gull RockFuji FinePix S602, 46.8mm, 1/750 @f/8, ISO 200
You can tell from all the gull guano that they certainly spend a lot of time on that rock. I took two of these framed just slightly different from each other. It's amazing how little difference can spoil a shot, as in the other image things are just to the left a little bit, but it's clearly not as good as this one. (Of course, that shot contains a family of birds flying away just above the waterline to the right of this boulder, which would've added to this shot. Can't have it all, I guess.)
Beachside Still LifeFuji FinePix S602, 7.8mm, 1/450 @f/5.6, ISO 200
I just happened upon this random arrangement of rocks, wood, and a bar stool. To me, this looks a bit like Fred Flintstone's favorite jazz club...if the foreground rock and log are a chair and a couch, the half-log in the background could be the prehistoric bar.
No? Ok.
Overgrown StepsFuji FinePix S602, 7.8mm, 1/350 @f/5, ISO 200
I kept wondering how this trail could be as overgrown as it was with the amount of hiker traffic we encountered that day. I guess the foliage was made up of aggressive plants.
Raven IFuji FinePix S602, 46.8mm, 1/480 @f/8, ISO 200
When I'm rushed to take an action shot, my habit of inadvertantly tilting the camera is at its worst. Since this was a decisive moment, though, I don't feel too badly about it--that's what Photoshop is for. (What it is decidedly not for, though, is when I manage to tilt a shot that I'd set up for 5 minutes on a tripod.)
This is perhaps another shot that should be cut down to a vertical Nothing going on in the left half of this frame as it is. Level it, cut it down, and who knows--it might be worthy of hanging on the wall someday.
Raven IIFuji FinePix S602, 46.8mm, 1/600 @f/8, ISO 200
Another shot of the same raven, I believe. He provided a number of silhouettes against the sky for me that day. This is one of the few in which he was recognizable as a bird.
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