A few favorites from Isle Royale National Park

burritosandbeer wrote:

Recently did a kayak trip on Isle Royale National Park in far northern Michigan with my 15 year old daughter. Brought along a M43 kit for a few shots...

Brought the G7, 14-42PZ, 25 f1.7, 45-150 f4-5.6 and 100-300ii.

Since I was living from a kayak, the camera and lenses rode in a waterproof case on the back of the kayak.

Wonderful area, and a 'target rich environment' for a photographer willing to take gear on the kayak. Great idea and great potential.

You asked for feedback, and I'm going to be direct, honest, and constructive below. Please take in the spirit intended.

Frankly, I don't like this shot. The focus is on the intermediate bush and rock outcropping, but that's partly hidden by the out-of-focus rock in front, and the lovely but oof island in the background. The tilted horizon is distracting, and the branches in the upper left. If you were trying to get the three outcroppings in repetition, then a high vantage point would help, and getting the DOF to encompass all rocks.

This is potentially interesting, but the slanted horizon ... at least for me ... is distracting. Cropping, getting some sky above the near trees, not burying the shadows in dark would help, and getting the canoes in focus would help. The bigger problem is that the subject isn't clear ... is the story about the kayaks, the shoreline, or something else? Stepping back a bit might tell a better story.

Nice shot. Nice balance of foreground and background. If you shot this raw, then you might have enough latitude to bring down the highlights on the water, and to bring up the shadows to reveal some detail.

These types of silhouettes can be tricky. The subject appears to the person, but placing the person dead center removes some of the drama. The paddle makes for a nice action. Perhaps cropping out the uninteresting foreground and placing the person using the rule of thirds would tell the story a little better. For my taste, I'd also like to see at least a bit of shadow detail.

Again a lovely scene. But the foreground is largely uninteresting, and drama in the image is reduced by placing the main subject dead center. It's also not as sharp as it needs to be. This is the type of scene where a bit of experimenting might yield interesting results. I'd be tempted to get a little more left for a more 2-dimensional capture of the main house, and then get closer to use more of the frame and to raise the lighthouse further above the treeline. Since you're low in a kayak, there will be the problem of keystoning which could be addressed in post.
These are difficult shots to execute from boats. I also like to shoot from the back of boats, and motion blur is very hard to avoid. That goes with the territory and just means you need to be sure to do some repetitive shooting.

A nice idea, but needs a few fixes. The tilted horizon distracts. What's interesting here is the relationship of rocks, water, and green. Cropping out some of the uninteresting sky, and then increasing contrasts would help bring out this subject.

This would be my favorite of the collection. Aiming a little to the right would remove the distracting elements on the extreme left margin, and include a bit more of shoreline on the right. It might be interesting to try shooting this from both higher and lower vantage points in order to place the top of the outcropping a little further away from the horizon line.  There's a lot of potential here, it would be worthwhile experimenting with multiple vantage points and different relationships of foreground and background.
It also needs a 'punch-up' in contrast with a little adjustment of the tone curve.

Hope you find that useful.