Government in the Gutterby
ShannonLeeComment by digitalknight: Greetings from the Critique Club!
Isnât serendipity a wonderful thing? You are walking along with your keen photographerâs eye checking it out, and BAM serendipity steps right out and hands you a top ten finish!
Well thatâs what your comment tends to make me want to believe, but Iâm not buying it. Thereâs a lot of talent that goes into âseeingâ photography that the crowd is just walking past â and you obviously have that insight. That needs to be commended. Great work here!
Now letâs talk about the photo for a minuteâ¦
Composition:
This is such a great example of leading lines. The main focus is obviously above the vertical âthirdâ line, but I donât mind a bit because there are so many lines âpointingâ to my eye what Iâm supposed to be looking at. So kudos on terrific framing, and a very nice crop to bring it down to what works. (my eye tells me that this is cropped a little on the sides, is my eye right?)
Speaking of cropping, thank you for leaving the âno parkingâ in there! The red curb with the obvious government imposed âno parkingâ strengthens this image and its meaning substantially in my mind. That was a good call to leave it in (besides extending those lovely leading lines)
Lighting:
Looks like an overcast day, so the colors are a little flat (although not too flat, either nice exposure or nice post processing â hard to tell from the insightful comments and excellent camera data that was entered! :-p ). I would love to see it in black and white for comparison. Iâm not saying B&W would be better, just that it would be nice to compare. Converting to B&W is something I do with my overcast day photos to add interest â
If it were a perfect world:
Ok, the tribe has spoken, we all love the photo. Now when you go shoot this for stock, what to do differently?
The large leaves/trash on the sidewalk directly to the right of the reflection are a pretty big distraction â a quick kick to get those out of frame first â oh, and get that one in the cross walk, yeah the green one, while youâre at it. (of course some deft PhotoShop work will get those pesky little buggers right out of the way and youâll be ready for market in no time).
Ok, now to really push it. Take your foot, or your friendâs shoe, and smooth out that pile of gravel in the middle of the puddle. Now wait for the water to become absolutely still again, now shoot. Told you I was really going to push my luck⦠:-)
Now that Iâve typed that, I look at it again and realize the gravel can be seen as corruption or crumbling inside the government, so weâll define it as that and add that to your great insight into government. I retract my request for gravel removal.
Ok, I had to come up with something other than telling you how much I like your photo, and really those are the only two things I could come up with. This image is a real statement, tells a story, and creates strong feelings in your audience of agreement and disagreement â that is what good photography is supposed to do. Youâve done an excellent job. Iâm looking forward to seeing more of your entries in the future.
Regards,
Doug
Photographer found comment helpful.
