Man & Machine - Humbled

This is a shot i took of my friend standing and looking over the serene water.
We had just completed one heck of a ride & adrenaline was pumping through us...
Within a minute of reaching there i saw my friend standing the way he was...
and it was just so amazing.. in a moment there was total peace.. within & without..
Only nature can do this & i wish more of the world would take time to be with her & relax...

Model - NIKON D5100
09:19 07:12:47
ExifOffset - 216
ExposureTime - 1/60 seconds
FNumber - 22
ExposureProgram - Aperture priority
ISOSpeedRatings - 200
ShutterSpeedValue - 1/60 seconds
ApertureValue - F 22.00
ExposureBiasValue - 0.00
MaxApertureValue - F 1.74
MeteringMode - Multi-segment
LightSource - Cloudy weather
Flash - Not fired
FocalLength - 35.00 mm

Shot with the Nikon 35mm 1.8g

Please critique

yeah,, nice shot.

Great shot mate, I am keen to see what the colour version looks like though

F/22 and 1/60...must have been bright as heck...ND filter would have been a real helpful tool here.

It is a good snap but it is way off balance. Study the fulcrum principle it will help you out.

Love the spirit you describe and that saves it for me.

Great story and picture and since you asked for a critique I am going to give my opinion of what would have made this a GREAT shot instead of just a neat shot.

Those spur of the moments snapshots we tend to just throw the camera up and start snapping shots before we consider composition, perspective etc.
Looking at the picture from the perspective of an armchair quarterback it is easy to pick it apart.
The most honest critique that I have is in the composition.
If you would have dropped down into a crouch, your friend would have been silhouetted against the sky instead of having a small island growing out of his face.
Sometimes the last thing we think of when taking a shot is how the background affects the subject and we always need to be on guard for background objects like a tree branch sprouting from the subjects ear or an island sprouting from someone's face.

@Scott- Thanks.. will post the color on tomorrow.. at work now

@Jeff - Never heard of 'fulcrum principle'
a quick google search pulled this, Photographic Psychology: Image and Psyche
is this what you talking about?

@ken - i think so too! just as soon as i loaded the photo on my pc i felt something was wrong with it somewhere...
thanks for the tip & opinion, very much appreciated

Yes sir that is it...see how the rider in your image sort of makes the whole thing fall over to the right? The composition would be good if you were wanting to suggest tension but I don't think tension fits the mood of this snap...

I really like Ken's take on it to...I do that same kind of thing all of the time...the background gets me probably 90% of the time! Seems like I never learn...

It is a great candid shot that makes the viewer wonder what he is thinking or looking at.

The bad news is that you are just going to have to do it again. Yep get your friends together and tell them you have to repeat the entire ride all over again -- but don't tell them why.
Keep it natural, but this time be ready for the moment.

I really like the compo, whether spur of the moment or otherwise, and as noted already, the only prob is the rock growing out of his face and perhaps a little more interest in the lovely clouds would add some punch...

Try this mr Danz, as i have cloned out the face protubrance and tweaked the sky a tad... a rather quick edit, so not brilliant from me.

Feel free to download it ( its your pic afterall ) if you dont feel you want to have to go shoot it again

Pierro said:

I really like the compo, whether spur of the moment or otherwise, and as noted already, the only prob is the rock growing out of his face and perhaps a little more interest in the lovely clouds would add some punch...

Try this mr Danz, as i have cloned out the face protubrance and tweaked the sky a tad... a rather quick edit, so not brilliant from me.

Feel free to download it ( its your pic afterall ) if you dont feel you want to have to go shoot it again

Click to expand...

Nice quick edit

Cheers Scott
I did a slightly better one i think..

Pierro said:

Cheers Scott
I did a slightly better one i think..

Click to expand...

Yes its nice and even now

I like your idea, but there are a couple of things I think could improve it:

I would have pitched the camera down so that the horizon line is on the top third Rule of Thirds line. This would have visually balanced the image and at the same time prevented the chopping off of the motorbike's tyre. I would have also avoided having the dark areas of the background running through the model's head.

Edit: Serves me right for not reading other people's posts. I've pretty much just repeated everyone else!

Pierro said:

I really like the compo, whether spur of the moment or otherwise, and as noted already, the only prob is the rock growing out of his face and perhaps a little more interest in the lovely clouds would add some punch...

Try this mr Danz, as i have cloned out the face protubrance and tweaked the sky a tad... a rather quick edit, so not brilliant from me.

Feel free to download it ( its your pic afterall ) if you dont feel you want to have to go shoot it again

Click to expand...

That does look much better.. thanks!
But errr... you said you cloned out the face protubrance (?)
what exactly is that & how do you do it? sorry.. still relatively new at this

The clone tool is something within Adobe CS5 ...what is your processing software ?

Pierro said:

The clone tool is something within Adobe CS5 ...what is your processing software ?

Click to expand...

i have trial versions of Photoshop, Lightroom & Elements...