US COAST GUARD CUTTER 87' CPB

Shot this as the Coast Guard cutter was heading out of Beaufort, NC. C/C welcome

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Take my advice with a grain of salt, but explain the crop to me. Why not have the boat centered? Is there something important about the building and trees to the right of the boat on the shoreline?

Looks like he may have been trying to show some depth in the image by including the beach. I think it's a nice pic but I agree that I probably would have cropped tighter with a little room in front of the boat for it to "travel" into.

Don't center the image. Remember the rule of thirds. I would rather see more water in front of the boat. This will give the illusion that it is going somewhere. Much like you'd rather see more sky in front of an aircraft than behind. However, if the building in the background has some historical significance and should be in the shot, than I would include it. Other than that, I would leave it out.

arguing for both cash and asystole,
i see what cash was trying to do with the beach and the boat in the same shot. however, the boat was moving, so the rule of thirds really comes into play. if the boat were sitting still, then this would be perfect. still, nice shot!

Try to leave more room at the front for it to "move into". See post #4: MOVE YOUR FEET! A <rant> of sorts.

No...there is no historical reason or any other reason to have the building in the photo. I am a newbie and and tried to put the cutter in a 1/3 composition. I honestly did not think about leaving space for the cutter to travel into; however it makes complete sense to me. I will never look at transportation photos again in the same way. I did want to include the beach in the foreground to give a sense of how narrow the channel was that the cutter was maneuvering down. I do not the captain of the cutter and he told me that it was the first time that an 87' CGC had moored up at Beaufort, NC. I sent him a copy of the photo and he and the crew loved it. Of course after reading the following comments I am going to send him the updated version with more water to steam into. Thanks all for looking and taking the time to comment, I really appreciate the POTN forum and all the great advice. If this does not look any better, or you guys think that you might have a better way of cropping the photo i would be happy to put the uncorrected photo up and let you guys have a go at it. Thanks all!
Cash

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Second shot is a keeper. Good Job.

If you really want to improve it, try your hand at cloning out the power lines.

Thanks Eagle! I will take your advice and clone out the power lines; I need to work on my CS3 skills and this will be a good one to use the clone tool.

Cash

The second shot is much better, but I would still like to see the ship in the lower 1/3 of the shot. Just my $0.01 (my wife cut my allowance)

Thanks Kevin! I enjoyed looking at your photos of the firemen.

Cash

asysin2leads wrote in post #6084176
Don't center the image. Remember the rule of thirds. I would rather see more water in front of the boat. This will give the illusion that it is going somewhere. Much like you'd rather see more sky in front of an aircraft than behind. However, if the building in the background has some historical significance and should be in the shot, than I would include it. Other than that, I would leave it out.

with the rule of 3rds though it could have been centered horizontally and on a 3rd vertically.