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The simplicity of this photo has drawn my eye back to it several times over the course of the last couple of hours. I didn't actually click on it, though, because my analytical side clicked on and said "yeah, but it's so...so...not-incredibly-special." While that may be true something about it just works, and I like it very much. Digging in the earth is such a fundamental activity, and the image could be from today or 100 years ago - it's timeless. Good texture in the dirt, and the bit of earth on the shovel itself gives the image a bit of potential energy. I'm pretty new to really thinking about photography, so my words perhaps don't carry much weight, but I think you've got a good shot here.

Hi David,

It's a really great composition - very clean and powerful.

Here's a thought - how about trying to re-shoot this same scene with strong sidelighting - like early in the morning or late afternoon - or if you could get a strong lamp off to the side.

What I'm thinking here is adding another element - texture - to this image. The composition is already very strong, but I feel that adding contrast in tone and texture will turn it into a really great photo. Sidelighting would add variation in tone to the soil and also provide a contrast between the highly textured soil and the realtively smooth shovel head.

Best regards,

SteveR