I took this picture in the side view mirror of my car as the buggy passed by us. I really like the photo except for the distracting power line overhead. I would appreciate any comments or suggestions because I am still very new to photography.

I shot this from the sideview mirror of my car as we passed this

buggy on the road. I love this photo and the contrast it portrays

between modern transportation and old-fashioned. I am new so I don't

know very much about its technical integrity. I may try to do it

again and I would appreciate any comments or suggestions.

I think if it weren't for the title & caption I wouldn't be sure what was going on in the photo. The bulk of the image consists of sky, road, and landscape, and the subject itself is not in great focus.

 

Getting the side-view mirror, part of the car, and the buggy all infocus at the same time will be tough, but perhaps with a stopped-down wide-angle lens, the car stopped, and the buggy closer you could pull it off without the blur/focus problem. Good luck!

I agree with the other comments, but, if you have not already read the book 'Drive By Shootings' by David Bradford take a look it is really inspiring in this field of photography.

Thanks for the suggestions and the book idea. Like I said above, I really love the idea. Unfortunately when I took this I was still new enough to photography, that I was not sure how to pull off the technical end of it.I really want to attempt it again. Perhaps when I do, I will post the results.

Kelly, I disagree with the person who suggested everything needs to be in focus. It's an expressive and interesting picture precisely because it tells a different kind of story than the photo where everything is pre-determined and all the technical issues thought through in advance. It says something about how see things rather than just what we see. I don't mind the power line either, but it looks like you may have tried to cover it up in Photoshop (or maybe it's just an artifact of compression). This photograph reminds me of a great book of photos taken by a professor at Tyler School of Art named Michael Becotte. It's called Space Capsule, and all the photos were taken from a car. A couple have horses in them. I'd encourage you to take more photographs that reflect this kind of spontaneity and not get too bogged down with the standard line about focus and technical precision--not bad things in themselves and in their place, but they need to serve better purposes than perpetuating the cliches of advertising and stock photography.

Thank you for taking the time to give me a different viewpoint. I love this photo regardless of the technical details and in my naievity(sp?) and inexperience with photgraphy I was

disappointed to find out that I had made what would be considered textbook flaws. Although, I guess that is the point of being new to something--finding room for improvement! Thank you also

for the book recommendation. I borrowed my sister's scanner to upload this and it has some software that allows you to make minor editing changes like red-eye and scratch erase. I tried the scratch erase feature to make the powerline less distractive.I thought that it helped somewhat. Otherwise, though, I didn't make any alterations from the original. Here is the original with the power line unaltered.

Nice shot. Why don't you take the powerline away if it bugs you...?

Well seen, but may be you need some less contrast, there's no detail in the shadows, specially on the horse. The cable: you can erase it with every digital program for manipulation of iamges.