Pictures from the Seychelles Islands

Hello everyone,

I recently got married and took my bride to the Seychelles for our honeymoon...

The place is mind-bogglingly beautiful!

We spent the first week on the island of Praslin at the La Reserve resort and the second week on the island of Mahe at the Four Seasons resort and they were the best two weeks of my short life

I of course took plenty of pictures...perhaps a little too many - my wife even got a little agitated with all the picture taking...it was funny, but I assured her that a few years down the line, she would appreciate these pictures for their ability to transport her back to the Seychelles in an instant

I've had my D300 for a while now and have learnt a lot through practice and reading the valuable posts on this here forum and see my picture-taking and post-processing improving. I am still no pro though and this is still only my second attempt to post pictures here so I would appreciate some CC and comments if possible. Well, hope you enjoy the pictures (20 pics), and if anyone is on the fence about going to the Seychelles...DO IT! YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT!









































Please follow this link to the rest of the album (set of 60) if you are interested:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/foreversuperman/sets/72157622835281136/

Shereif

Nice shots, I'd love to travel there once! It top of my list of to-do's...

What I (dislike is big word) like less about the shots is the contrast, especially in the sky. Personally I would expect the pics to be a bit more "easy going" and soft.

You're gonna enjoy the experience of this trip for a long time I bet. Thanks for sharing the photos.

amazed you had the energy to take any pics at all.

beautiful place though and nice pics

--
waiting for a smart comment to poach

Gallery: http://www.nickhogg.com/databases

too saturated for my taste, looks overexposed/blown highlights (unless it's my work monitor) and... slight feeling of vertigo - no, it's not "creative" to hold your camera like this. it works for some but doesn't for your photos.

The cheesy angled shots work more for cheesy wedding photos than for landscapes. Did you take two shots of these scenes - one straight, the other tilted? I would much rather see the straight ones.

--
'87.6% of all statistics are made up on the spot'

ShutterBugin

The angles don't bother me. Overall, great imges. Just find the blown highlights a real downer.
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http://www.pbase.com/gsaf

http://www.dphoto.us/forumphotos/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/2371

looks like a beauitiful place but i have to agree with the other posts blown highlights and over saturated and seascapes at tilted angles is a no no for me

Nice potential. But too much of contrast and blown highlights. And the tilted landscapes doesn't do it for me. Please show us a tad more "relaxed" versions as they have great potential!

I know those angled shots as "dutch shots" - sorry but diminish the quality of the photo. On my monitor some over saturated and some over exposed. Did you shoot in RAW?

Thanks for sharing! What a beautiful place!

Don't know if you want some C&C but you did say you learnt alot ...
First off, congratulations and yes Seychelles is so beautiful.

There are some funny colors going on here. I would guess coming from your polarizer... also many are overexposed - probably from capturing at high noon which really strains your camera's dynamic range.

One or two frames slanted might be novelty but other than that, perhaps framing appropriately would lend more to the scenery.

Hope this helps in continuing to learn about your camera ...
cheers.

--
I wasted time till time wasted me - Savatage.
Heaven forbid! - Babe

Thanks all for the polite comments and constructive critisicm (Bo, Hog, Marker, Paddy, Morty and Delmore).

Regarding a few others though - still valuable but I don't think opinions involving the words "cheesy" and those that attempt to label my pictures as non-creative are very constructively worded; I wouldn't presume to think that anyone is any kind of authority on what is and isn't creative, though it is of course personal preference whether someone likes or dislikes the outcome of another's creative attempts, creativity in itself cannot be judged I believe.

Here are my responses to the major points made, and they were all of course expected (they are pretty obvious in these pics

Over saturation: I know I went overboard with this a bit, perhaps I should tone it down a bit, but to me, this please was just so brilliantly vivid that this is how I actually remember the place and I actually hardly touched a few of these pics - but a fair enough comment.

Blown highlights: I did this intentionally in PP...okay, maybe not the most 'correct' technique, but I'm a sucker for contrast and really do like most things in life, even my photos, with a big kick to them...but I agree, I should have again exercised some self restraint.

Angled composition: Well, really no excuses to make for this one, I love angled pictures and I really don't set out to take them like that, I just don't usually like what I see in the viewfinder using conventinal angles - but again, fair enough, the comment was made enough to make think about it, will attempt some more conventional angles the next time I'm out shooting and will look for some of the more 'normal' pictures from this trip to process.

I hope I can re-process these pictures and tone things down to a point where I still like them and others may appreciate them more and re-present them here to see what you think of them. Any other comments still appreciated, thanks.

Shereif

I was thinking the same, like, 'God, I hope he took some straight as well otherwise he'd have to go back and take them again !'.

I think these shots are reminding you how great your holiday was, but on there own (to people who didn't go there with you) they are waaaaaaay too saturated and.....sorry.

I hope you got some great ones of that beautiful sky and flat mirrorlike water ???

Shutterbugin said:

Did you take two shots of these scenes - one straight, the other tilted? I would much rather see the straight ones.

ShutterBugin

Click to expand...

I got dizzy and stopped looking after a few. I think you have severly overdone both the colours and the tilting. It's just too much for my taste. You blew most of the highlights as well, maybe that's also deliberate, I don't know.
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http://www.olyflyer.blogspot.com/

Nothing wrong with blown high lights if thats your choice, but a beautiful place like that looks better for most of the PPL if wider DR available.

Aside from photography, no doubt was a wellworth travel....love the white sand of indian ocean, but my next trip (already paid) is to your country iuhuuuyyy

looking forward for underwater frames in the red sea. why red?

soon i will see if is rainbow colors instead.

Cheers