It's been raining quite a bit here lately. I love puddle reflections so after-rain is a good shooting time for me.
Nothing fancy. Just stood in the mud and looked for best angles. I like this one because the converging lines lead your eyes away from the lone pillar that's "in the way."
Post processing includes contrast boost, some noise removal, USM, curves, channel mixing to B&W, slight rotation, crop.
I would love to have used HDR to combine multiple exposures so the sunlit areas weren't blown out but I didn't think this would be allowed for Basic Editing rules.
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I can see why you chose this location for this challenge. I can also see why you made it black and white - it's a relatively complicated scene and the choice of B&W simplifies it and allows the real subject to dominate.
The reflection really makes this image interesting and helps hold the attention of the viewer. It creates another set of leading lines (the roof and its reflection, on top of the leading lines created by the central tunnel of pillars.
I personally like the single pillar to the right. It gives a sense of scale and depth to the image. Without it the image may have looked a little flat and distant?
The eye is naturally led into the image from the left and moves straight to that pillar, then across that wonderful reflection and down through that tunnel of pillars, giving a sense of flow and movement.
Personally I might have liked a squarer crop to eliminate the blown out highlights on both sides of the image, but that would mean disturbing two of your major leading lines in the roof.
A little bump in the contrast would give it the image a little more impact, but with those blown highlights and basic editing that would be difficult.
A really interesting image and perfect for the challenge.
Thank you, everyone, for your comments. The foreground pillar was part of what I liked in the shot, juxtaposed with an otherwise symmetrical shot (the overhead beams, especially), as a typical version of the shot would be just the symmetry and nothing else.
However, I also would have liked a more symmetrical shot, just to at least have taken it. Maybe I should get some water boots, but it would still be a risky shot...the water is just a large puddle on caliche mud which is about as slick as oil and likes to suck shoes off and will bog down the most aggressive 4x4. Added to that, plenty of pigeons live overhead there and, well, the water stinks of their droppings.
I'm not sure the puddle would be as drammatic if I moved closer in, but I'll most likely get some mud/water boots anyway ;)
Nice pure interpretation of the challenge. I like the column to the right, but I think cropping away the stuff in the bottom left hand corner would be a better choice.
I like this picture a lot. It's not the usual shot. One thing that does bother me is the closest pillar on the right. I find it takes away from the intended focus of the picture. Aside from getting your feet wet, could you have moved a bit closer to remove the pillar from your field of view?
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