Carousel Horse

Nikon FM, 28mm F3.5. I have a certain fondeness of carousels and

carvival rides. For me this particular horse stood out among the

others. The lighting isolated it, but did not cut it off from the

surrounding environment. I'm interested what you may think. Thanks.

The horse itself is beautiful and your focus on it is precise. It feel like color would have been better here, to see the golden mane, etc. Carousels are colorful.

 

AS for the rest of it, I don't know how to improve it, but I am left feeling like the impact of the horse is lessened by the vast number of details of the background remaining...all the poles sticking up and shadows below, all distract from my ability to focus on the subject.

I have had many comments like: "It feel like color would have been better here", or "I wonder what it would look like in color". As I have stated in my bio, I have chosen to make photos exclusively in black and white as this style of photography really appeals to my artistic sense. Color does not give that same satisfaction. If an artist makes that kind of creative choice, as may be stated in his bio, or otherwise, critics of the work should respect that choice and not suggest color would be better, but judge it for what it is. Please don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of good color photos that are well executed, but I have my personal choice for my own work. Thanks to all who have taken the time to look at my work.

I shoot black & white and color, and I can see why you wanted this in B&W.

 

What were you feeling when you took this? Was it spooky being in a deserted carnival? Were you nostalgic? I think isolating the background would help convey the feeling of the photo, whatever you were going for.

The shadow is distracting. You could only hold detail in the shadow or sunlit portion, and chose the shadow. Could you have shot a fully sunlit horse, thereby rendering the background as deep black?

The carousel was in an older shopping mall and was in an enclosed rotunda with lots of glass windows facing west. My intent was not to completely isolate the horse from the environment around it as this is an important part of what I saw and felt. An environment in which the whole carousel is present, but not overpowering the photo. The horse was stark white and the way it was partially covered in shadow in a diagonal direction made it real interesting to me. This was the only horse in or near the sunlight area that interested me. The print from which this scan came from was printed so that just enough detail of the sunlight portion of the horse was present so as not to subdue it into the surrounding scene. So my focus was really more on the horse for an accurate rendition and less so on the shadows. Thanks for the comment.