Shot at dusk along the great Mississippi river. The woman sitting on the bench is my mother, I didn't ask her to sit, she just did, and didn't realize she was in my photo. This was shot with a wide angle lens at 20mm.
Statistics
Place: 30 out of 219 Avg (all users): 6.3547 Avg (commenters): 7.4000 Avg (participants): 6.2910 Avg (non-participants): 6.4400 Views since voting: 2312 Votes: 234 Comments: 31 Favorites: 3 (view)
I chose this as one of my favorites a long time ago, but I never commented. This is a great picture and what really draws my eye in is the colors in the sky. The shadows and the lights enhance the picture so much., and it's just a beautiful image.
Initial thoughts Beautiful and unique shot,definitely meets the challenge, could be just a wee bit brighter.
Composition/ Content
I really like what you've done with the sidewalk, rails and lights leading off to the distance. As I stated during the contest, I think the jet trails really add to this shot. Their curvature seems to give the whole picture a sort of "roundness" to me that adds to the movement into the distance. I think you could have moved the tree a bit to the right by cropping but would have lost some of the trails which I like so much. The positioning of the first light is dead on.
Background It really bugs me that you got ticky-tack comments on the horizon being the horizon being tilted. You are going from a flat river to land. If it wasn't higher, the banks of the river would overflow! The lamp is straight up and down so the horizon is not tilted! The bridge in the background is perfect.
Camera Work - Technical Focus seems to be a bit soft but I think it works here. I assume that this was a hand-held shot and you had low light so it would be tough to be absolutely sharp. A tripod and a slightly longer exposure would probably do it.
Digital Processing - Technical The one thing that bothers me about the shot is the people or person on the bench. They look nice there but I can't see them enough to even tell for sure if there is one or two. A little bit more light and/or exposure would probably have done it. There are several things you COULD have done crop-wise, but I think it is just about right. This shot may have benefitted from a border of white surrounded by black to bring out the awesome colors even more.
Fits The Challenge This may have been the reason you didn't finish higher. Even though I feel it is a landscape shot, apparently not everyone thought it met the challenge criteria. To each his own.
My Opinion On The Photo I originally scored this shot a seven but it was a borderline eight in my book. I think that it meets the challenge well but could have been improved a little to finish even higher than it did. There was some really awesome competition this week. I admire your work, good job, and keep it up!
I would be happy to talk further about this shot if you would like to contact me.
DougPaz
Excellent perspective and beautiful scene. A little too much dark on the lower right but there's not way you could have avoided that and still include the important elements. That bridge out in the distance is a real plus in this composition.
Very nice, love the inclusion of the tree and the lights. The horizon is tilted a bit. I am wondering if a different angle, stepping a little to your right would have improved the composition to see more of the lights, off center the tree and not include a lot of wasted space on the right. Still a good photo.
This is lovely... I enjoy the way the sidewalk and lights leads me into the distance. the color contrast in the sky is also quite appealing :) = 10 - setzler
Beautiful scene. Just enough light. Tree is a little too centered but the receding perspective helps it not be too obvious. Would try not to cut off the bottom of the lamp maybe. 10
A nice sunset, but the 'land' in the 'landscape' is very dark. The lines in the sky are very nice, as is the bridge in the distance. Composition is good though I would prefer it cropped closer to the lamp. The second lamp appears to be growing out of the tree. Nice shot, just not for this challenge.
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