[Rob Barron]

Taken in Florida with my Canon 20D. Just thought I'd go for something simple, I know silhouettes aren't everybody's cup of tea but I enjoy doing them and looking at them so i am sure some others do

Enjoy looking and all C&C welcome.

Cheers,
Rob

[Charlotte]

Nice one Rob, palm trees do make interesting silhouettes. Great colours + you've captured a lovely rich sunset, which adds to the mood enormously. I thought the gap on the LHS (no trees) made the comp a little unbalanced, but if I crop that off then the frame looks cluttered, so on reflection I think that space on the LHS is needed.

A very pleasant image, Rob

EDIT:
Actually, I've jut tried the crop again + it's growing on me.

[Rob Barron]

I must say I thought it needed that space as it is the strongest orange area of sunset. But now you mention it I have looked at it cropped and I like it at least equally so fair point Charlotte. I wonder what others think?

Cheers,
Rob

[Angela]

I like it as it is, I must admit. The only point I would make is that you've just lost the top of the tree on the RHS - I think a little more space around that side might balance up the space on the left.

[Rob Barron]

Yup, fair point Angela. It is as much as I had there so this isn't cropped as such. I could clone a bit of space into that area I guess. Not sure as my eye is naturally drawn to the left rather than to that area so maybe doesn't need it. Hard to decide LOL.

Cheers,
Rob

[Boofers]

Having spent most of my life around trees like this, a portrait cut of the clump of center trees is appealing to me. Was it hot? A gradient sky behind this is the way to go and forget about the orange. Hope you got to feel the heat.

[Markulous]

I'm with 'as is' tho' support more space around the trees on the right

Nice silhouettes and colour with those lights ensuring the bottom isn't a slab of black (which is when I rapidly go off silhouettes! )

[Rob Barron]

Thanks Mark and yes, I agree. Funnily enough I wasn't quite sure myself why I liked this silhouette as much as I do yet am not so keen on a lot of them (though we have seen some excellent ones on here) but now you say it, I think you've hit it on the head, it's the fact the bottom area is broken up by the lights, thanks

Boofers, it was certainly hot, being Florida in late September when the daytime temps were around 38-40 degrees! I am not entirely sure what you mean by 'forget the orange' and 'a gradient sky is the way to go'. For me, I love the way the blue fades down into the orange and don't think it would be anything like as strong if it didn't have the orange area there. Did you mean I should add a gradient sky or what? I just went with the sky that was there at the time as I felt it was lovely.

Sorry if I am being thick, do explain

Cheers,
Rob

[Boofers]

Hi Rob,
Sorry you missed the heat, lets say 91 degrees with humidity 93 percent., that kind of weather will turn you into a prune in no time. You must have done your homework before travel. About the sky, you have a gradient sky with the blue to orange, what I meant was about your comment about including more orange to the LHS.
The sky and black palms make this picture beautiful as is, I interruped the thread because everybody was looking at the sides when to me the middle palms are the subject to be dealt with. I take it you had an absolutely wonderful trip, I just returned from New Orleans where the heat cooked me to the point of a slight sun stroke.
By the looks of this picture you scored some good ones.

[Rob Barron]

Cheers Boofers, got you now. Yes, we had a fantastic time. It was our second trip to Florida and we did some of the things we hadn't done on our first trip. Actually, the first time round (2000) we did very little by the way of photography as we were doing all the Disney and other theme parks and there wasn't a great desire to carry cameras around with us.

The second time (2006) we went to some other places as well as repeating just the theme parks we really enjoyed, like Epcot, Universal Studios etc. We also went out to a lovely place called Lake Tohopekaliga where we went on an airboat to see the alligators and other wildlife. We only saw a couple of alligators but I came back with my favourite wildlife shots of the whole trip of a Grey heron just taking off and swopping low in flight (they're in my gallery).

The heat is powerful stuff but it was worth it and we'd go back again in a heartbeat!

Cheers,
Rob