I like the bold and brash composition Rob, and the dominance of the tree reaching across the vista. I just wonder whether it could have been a tad sharper, but that could be down to my work monitor. Overall though, it's a good image.

Nice one

Andy

lovely shot - I can identify with the sense of revelation that comes with using another lens - I too have often unthinkingly used a wide angle only to be disappointed with the results, and then surprised myself with what comes of narrowing the pov. I think I said to you before that i already feel that I know this lighthouse, and it's a wonderful anchor to this shot, which is of course dominated by the tree. Excellent B&W conversion as usual - the sky and the early morning light is lovely. Great stuff.

Everything excellent.

A word about the conversion. Digital cameras 'see' in monochrome and by using colour filters and software interpolation generate a false colour image. The monochrome raw data is converted to colour and you (excellently) 'converted' it back. Original monochrome is the best. Did you shoot in RAW or jpeg? OK, so there's a techy gripe about people going on about 'conversions', pedantic, but I know what they mean.

All the Best Rob.

and these white dots are the only thing that is destract a little...but these is easy to fix ...i think...Like the conversion and clouds but espec . the compo with this witness tree of strong winds there...

I love it Rob. The tilt of the tree framing the hill and lighthouse is great and that is a very interesting sky. The use of flash makes it look a little bit surreal.

Hi Rob,

no waves? :-)

Even without waves it is a very well done picture. Have no problem with sharpness in this one. Like the composition very much. Excellent B&W conversion.

• Andy - You were right about the sharpness. I'm sharpening gun shy at times! Have reposted. I'm pleased the composition comes across strongly, as was my intent.
• Nigel - Great to read your comments on the lens thing. Yes, how often do I use a zoom at its maximum extents - whether wide or tele - instead of looking at the scene and asking myself what really works best. Matching the lens to the scene is more important than fitting the scene to the lens.
• Chris - It was a surprising revelation to me when I read that digital camera CCDs capture greyscale values and then interpolate to build the full colour image. I learned of it in Bruce Fraser's 'Camera RAW with Adobe Photoshop CS' (recommended reading). I always shoot RAW and just don't buy the arguments that hi-res JPG is as useful. 16 bits beats 8 any day. However, I don't agree that 'Original monochrome is the best'. Open a RAW capture in the RAW converter and completely desaturate and you see - I think - original monochrome as captured by the CCD. In most cases I find this quite bland. Using the digital darkroom and varying channel strengths, for example, is analogous to the old b&w masters using various Wratten filters to create more pleasing b&w shots in-negative then dodging and burning under enlarger. However, the digital darkroom is much more powerful and flexible than the tools Ansel Adams, for example, worked with.
• Steen - Glad you find it dramatic too. It was quite sharp, I just didn't let it through properly in the blow-down for Web :-)

• Denis - I rarely disagree with you but I do today - on the white dots. Not because 'they were there' but because they add to the soul of the image for me. It's daylight and the lighthouse has gone out, but the little lights on the posts mimic the lighthouse. I like that the BG behind the posts is quite dark, allowing the reflectors to really shine. I also think they look good positioned on the same vertical third as the lighthouse. I must admit, though, that this aspect of the image was totally accidental! :-)
• Frank - 'a little bit surreal' sounds good to me!
• Jochen - No waves...but that tree is doing a pretty good impersonation, don't you think? Thanks for affirming the conversion. I did wonder if the clouds at left were a little too harsh. There were a couple of small blowouts that I had to stamp.

Hello, beautiful black and white