Hi Jessica,
I like the idea of making a portrait of this model sailing boat by the beach… it rather belongs there.
You mentioned that you made a range of different photos and some came out brighter than you were expecting. This will often happen when you are using the camera in one of the automatic modes. When there is a large brightness range in a scene the camera has to decide which part of the scene to expose for. One part of the scene may be exposed correctly, while the remainder may be too dark ot too bright.
To get around this problem you are often better to use the camera in manual mode. That way you can choose which part of the scene you want to expose for. Manual mode gives you more exposure consistency and that can help guarantee you get the look YOU want in the photograph, not what the camera thinks is right.
There is something else I would try to improve in this photograph, and that is the camera angle. With a lower camera angle you can play with the sense of scale in the scene. Getting lower with the camera will create the sensation of looking up at this boat, as if it was sailing past you on the big ocean.
I do not often post my own photos by way of an example, but the photo below does show you how you can make a subject look big simply by putting the camera down low. This pufferfish was only about 15 cm long but the low angle has made it appear much bigger.
Just one heads up should you do this; work in manual mode and use a small aperture (f11 or f16) so that you can get both the boat and the background in focus. Set the ISO to about 800 and then adjust the shutter speed to get the correct exposure. I think you might be surprised with the results you achieve.
Good effort.
Image Doctor's Example of Getting Low
