Editing steps
* Crop
* Levels
* Cloned out power lines and construction markers in the distance
* USM
* Channel mixer to desaturate the sky and the road
* Resize
* selective USM
and then, some more editing as I had time
* dodge the foliage
* burn the sky
* gaussian blur in the distance
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First, let me thank you for including the details on the post processing you performed in the photographer's comment section. Now for the critique. My first impression was that the two walkers look like they could be walking in the brisk early morning hours by the way they are bundled up but the lighting looks too even to be just after daybreak. The link to morning becomes weaker when you see the packages in the hands of the walker on the right, as few people on morning walks carry more than a water bottle.
As for the post processing, the blur looks very unnatural, as it starts closer to the front of the image on the left side of the road than it does on the right side of the road. I do like the composition a lot, as the road doesn't just go straight down the middle of the picture and the dead grass on the left side of the road gives a nice secondary subject to look at with lots of detail.
Feel free to PM me if you have any questions regarding this critique.
i like the general idea. the surroundings seem so odd for the commentary though. seems almost like no beginning and no end. perhaps that was your intention. your added blur does not improve the image for me. though going a bit further and blurring everything but the road and the couple seems intriguing to me and would comment to me on how life passes for some before they know it and really get to experience anything of value for themselves. like waiting for retirement and then finding it was just like walking down a blurry road of hazy memories and dead grass.
5: There are things I like about this such as the way the road disappears into the distance but the OOF portion past the walkers has an artifical feel to it - I'm not saying it is artificial though!
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