Vast and powerful, the ocean is used but never harnessed... ridden but never tamed.
This was taken handheld at beautiful Cape Arago, which is along the southern Oregon coast, not far from Charleston. I thought including people would give the viewer more of an idea of the immensity of the rocks and waves that can be seen here... even on a very calm spring day. I'm hoping it will stay on the good side of 5.0, as it is my favourite photograph so far, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
I'm expecting this picture to not do so well, as many people might have a difficult time seeing "strength" in it - though I cannot imagine anyone who's ever been in/around the ocean denying its immense strength. Even after living around it for years, it still leaves me in awe of its sheer power and beauty. And yes, this photo was taken specifically for the challenge. :)
Editing: Curves and levels to correct a bit of over-exposure and to create some deep shadows (I didn't have time to fix my camera settings before that fantastic wave showed up, and I just had to get a shot of it), hue/saturation to remove the colour and give it a faint blue tint, resizing, border, and a small amount of sharpening. I think that's it.
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Place: 4 out of 282 Avg (all users): 6.7814 Avg (commenters): 8.1000 Avg (participants): 6.7368 Avg (non-participants): 6.8121 Views since voting: 3208 Votes: 279 Comments: 25 Favorites: 15 (view)
The inclusion of the two people really makes this work since there would be no sense of scale or drama without them. I like your choice to go for high contrast black and white.
Great detail. The contrast adds power, although it seems slightly grainy because of it. Either way, it's a great shot, and the two people also add a lot.
I really like this image. I don't care for the title at all, but I don't vote based on that. I use the title only when I can't understand what an image stands for. In this case, I think it does well all on it's own. Maybe that's because of what the ocean means to me personally. As much as blue water looks great crashing against rocks, I think your choice of b/w enhanced the feeling of strength and/or power.
I like this one! The strength of the waves, and the is it accidental that those people are in there? Because my first reaction is that those are swimmers/divers/surfers, and there "strength" adds to it. The action of the waves is the best part, I think. The foaming of the water is a nice contrast against the blackness of the shore, and the black and white work well with this photo. Great job!
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