Early Evening Shot With New tripod & Head

My wife and I were in Corolla, NC (outer banks) last month. I finally purchased a decent tripod and ball head, so I had to try it out...

Here's my first attempt at an early evening shot. f/5.6 @ 13 sec.

CC Welcome.

Looks sharp and clean. I like the composition too. Not a fan of the lighting though. Perhaps it was still a bit to bright out.

I think you might have been better suited to stop down a bit more, the boathouse in particular looks soft and lacking in detail, and it's prominence forces it to be a considerable part of the composition.

^^I agree. The boat house seems a bit soft.

I see what you mean about the boathouse being soft. It doesn't seem soft at all on the original full res version... at least to my eye. I reduced the size after reading the forum posting guidelines. Here's a link to the full res version if you're interested: Click here.

This was my first attempt at a long exposure, and I'm honestly pretty pleased with how it turned out.

The only lighting used was the full moon. I would love to re-take the shot stopped down a bit more as suggested, but alas, it's a long trip to the outer banks from Colorado.

Thanks for the comments.

Certainly looks much better in your link. Many night shots should look better darker than the normal metered exposure the camera would suggest, so you should compensate - perhaps shorter exposure or further stopped down.

It's a very inviting scene with nice colors, but does have something of the look of a late daylight shot of the building blended with a night sky (the stars in the sky add a lot, by the way).

My first impression is that it is crooked - down on the right.

Optical illusion?