Fade to Rustby
KDOComment by Skip: greetings, kathy!
the thing that draws me to this image is obviously the in-your-face yellowness of it. after that, i ask, "what's the point?" i realize that my eye is stuck on the door. to get to the back of the image, i have to lift my eyes, but they are blocked by the contrasting browns of the rust. so, my eye retreats in the other direction, towards the bottom front of the image. the angle that you shot this from has already put the front of the truck at the front of the image, so that does not leave me anywhere to go except back to the door. now, if i stop
trying to look at it and step back just a bit, i can start to see the whole truck, but i am still brought back to the door.
the "Fade to Rust" title gives me a little more reason to visually explore, looking for clues as to what is going on here. you have a workhorse of a truck that is still useable, even if it hasn't been used recently (notice the lack of wear on the tread). and, even though it has rust, none of it appears to have rusted through enough to have caused any real damage.
so, what do we have here? a strong truck imaged in such a way to keep you fixated on one part of its story--its door. what can you do about that? change your perspective. don't shoot from eye-level. drop to your knee and shoot from the bumper. or turn the camera on a 30-45 degree angle. if you are shooting something that cannot move, your shutter speed should never exceed 125 (well, that is a rather strong statement, but it's a good target, nonetheless). in this light, your ISO should be 100 and your aperature as far out as it takes to get your shutter speed lower. that will also give you a much deeper depth of field, which would also let you come right up to the hood or the from fender. a circular polarizing filter would also help boost the saturization while cutting down on the blow-outs on the snow.
what you have here is a high impact image that grabs the viewer, but doesn't have anything for them after the initial impact. you've done a great job of filling the frame. you have also picked a subject that will connect with most people. the challenge is to present in a way that keeps then connected and makes them want to hang around.
good luck, and keep on shooting!
skip
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