Very nice mix of color. Awesome sky, also.

She sits upon a seat on a great zig zag conveyor belt.
There is a subtle sensation of movement as I wonder what she is looking at.

Beautiful... the sky is amazing!

simply beautiful!

Cute, isn't she? Fine contrasts between a typical seashore colours and her clothes.

The sky's amazing!

Your processing on this is quite perfect - it looks hand-coloured. This is definitely one where it would be interesting to see the original. Your kids will have an astonishing archive to exhibit in later years!

The sky color just like oil pinting!

Wow, I absolutely love this shot! The mixture of staturation and the composition compliment each other perfectly.

OH MY FREAKING GOODNESS.
I absolutely love everything about this picture. Your skills are amazing. The sky in this image has more depth than the *real* sky. I have nothing but highest applause for this photo. Great job!

awesome - i love shots like this. wonderfully processed!

I have been a fan of your site for a year now and I absolutely love your pictures, they are breath-taking! I know that it might be your secret, but how do you get the dramatic 'contrast-i-ness' in many of your photos (particularly your black and white photo's but also this one). What kind of post-processing or anything like that. I appreciate any help you can give, thanks!

This photo is so vibrant, and it's probably my favorite from your recent series of beach photos... except for the wooden beam below/behind her feet. The contrast between the sand and the beam is so strong that it makes the beam look like it's hoovering in a different plane. Actually, the more that I look at it, the more I think that the contrast is just too heavy throughout. For instance, it makes your daughter and the beam look like they're cut-outs pasted onto a landscape photo.

I feel bad making criticisms when my own photography is so elementary, but I just had to make the observations. :-\

That's lovely! There is also something strange about the perspective - it's hard to tell if the wood is high above the sand, or resting on it, and it looks like you could just reach out and touch the sea, even though it is probably a fair walk away.

Aside from the misplaced diagonal that leads me right out of the frame, the composition is pretty fantastic. Love the light and her pose.

Sugoi...

What did you do for post processing? Its beautiful! Love everything about it :)

WOW!! What a pic! Congratulations!

I love the use of colors here: the blue sky, the brown sand, and the bright red dress. great. What you think is a fitting shot for me is a sure fav! ;)

totally unreal, any photoshop work?

amazing mix of color! and her concentration towards something gives a different aspect to the image.

This is a fantastic shot. I'm finding that I keep coming back to look at it again and again.

Love the soft hues of her face contrasting with her stark red dress. The sky is a little too surreal for me though..

I agree with fraxinus - the colours, especially the skin tones have a hand tinted B&W feel - reminds me of some family portraits from the 50s. Very well done.

Excellent shot! Superb contrast between the sky colors, beach and the baby's dress. Very ute face.

Though I am a regular visitor for your page, this is the first time I am putting my comment. I could not help myself but congratulate on this wonderful pic. Just curious how the original shot looked like :)

The cloudy sky is almost subreal and I really love the color of it. And in the other way, your baby adds the colorful part with that drees and all her aoutfit wich I may say it's lovely. :D . Did you eliminate the noise of the sky?

Geez, this is gorgeous. Looks like a fairy tale world.

Again Dave I believe that this is one of your best pictures, and again it has that Lorreta Lux feel about it but with more reality.

If anyone wants to know what I mean by Lorreta Lux here is the website http://www.lorettalux.de/

Great colours, the red makes her really stand out against the sky.

It's really lovely, a haunting image.

I'd also like to say how much I like this photo & would also like to know what processing you used - my guess would be some curves for contrast & a bit of channel mixing (but would LOVE to know what values you used for this shot)

I visit every day and you always have a very high quality of pictures, but I felt the need to comment today as I feel this leaps out of your very high standard and becomes super dooper high quality. This image really is something else.

I too would love to know your processing.

wooooooooowwwwww!!!!!!!!!! pls excuse me, i need to pass out.

fantastic photo! super great! yeah, I will be very interested in know the backend processing.

I LOVE this composition. I like it the best of your recent photos of your girls. However, I'm not sure how much I like the processing (although it's expertly done). I agree it looks like a handcolored B&W print, except for the sky. It's just surreal. I also think the wood beam is too bright, while the skintones and hair seem too desaturated to my eye compared with the sky. Along with what you did in post processing for this, I'd love to know what your intentions were with the post processing (i.e. handcolored, surreal, neither of those). I'd also like to see the original. Having said all that, I do think it's a magnificent photo!

That's very effective - 'dynamic', because of the sky and the diagonal beam. I wondered if it would be improved with more contrast, but actually I think the 'flat' effect works best.

I agree that everyone should go check out Loretta Lux so they can have a better understanding of that previous "unsettling" image. This is quite fantastic, although usually you'd have the negative space to the right....giving her space in the direction she's looking. But that would change the view and probably not include so much sea and sky. I'm sure your wife likes this one much better. But as for myself, I love that strange and disturbing photo.

This is a wonderful use of desaturated color. Folks, take note--you don't ALWAYS have to drive the color up to Peter Max poster saturation to make a statement. The broad, empty expanse of landscape, the quizical expression on the child's face and her pose looking out of the frame give the picture an elegaic quality that contrasts sharply from the usual sentimentalized depictions of childhood. The little nippers are as complex as we are and their complexity deserves to be recognized. This is a wonderful picture.

Adorable photo with amazing colors. I love the harsh sky and sand with a certain softness coming from her.

i'd love to know more about the post-processing on this shot. it's ruddy bloody lovely! the sky is amazing. nice one.

Thanks everyone.

And for those of you who are interested: this image was post-processed using two Curves adjustments, one for the entire image (with the blend mode set to luminosity, to increase the contrast without affecting the saturation) and the other for the sky. In addition I used Selective Color, the Channel Mixer and Hue/Saturation to accentuate the colours in the sky while leaving the rest of the image relatively true to the original scene.

As for Joann's question regarding my intention with this shot: I wasn't sure, hence the delay between taking it and putting it up. Sometimes (not very often) I take something that I don't know how to process. Not in a technical sense, but in terms of how I want it to feel. In this case the end result evolved over a period of weeks, and failed attempts to process it into something I liked.

WOW! This shot leaves me breathless. I love everything about this photo. I love how your daughter is looking somewhere off-camera. It makes me feel like she's looking somewhere else to give the sense that she's not the focus of the photograph with the abundance of beauty around her. Great shot.

I just have to join the chorus.

Beautiful!
Reminds me of my days hand-coloring b&w prints.
Thanks for the memories, David.

I really like this one David.

Magical shot. I like the strange colours, dark shadows, tone and mood.

Absolutely stunning. I'm constantly impressed and ever jealous of your work. ; it inspires me!

I saw this yesterday but didn't know how to react to it.

There are also days where i look at the shots i took without any clues as to what to do with them. Perhaps there was an intial idea when the shot was taken but shelved when reviewed on the laptop.

This is too dramatic for me so doubt i will ever see this in my portfolio any time soon (perhaps besides wedding pictures which could use some landscape like this).

The skies are distasteful on first look but gradually appeal to me over time. I just can't stop reviewing your shots!!

It's once again thought provoking when your daughter is sitting on the right looking to the right...hmmm.

wow! just great.

superb dave, damn good processing.

Simply?...beautiful!!!
I hope to make, someday, photographies so beautiful.

Okay where to begin. Everything is just about perfect. The pose of the little girl, the bleak colours in the environment around her contrasting her red dress, the sky, the view... Wow. Stunning.

Fantastic mood. Terrific composition. Amazing sky. Adorable little girl. Great all around.

This photo is amazing!
How do you make pictures like this?
Can you tell what postproduction you perform?

Lovely, like the zig zag composition and balance. I think it works well that she's looking out to the right, sometimes throwing rules out the window works well and in this case it I think it does. I think the white spots on the horizon at thirds need to go, they draw the eye but not in a good way.

You probably already know this, but someone's ripped you off http://flickr.com/photos/25047963@N00/27997818/

Of course I'm not really surprised, this is a wonderful photo!

She is like a guardian sitting strong and proud. Superb shot