alley way in the mission district

i had taken the day off of work and decided to shoot provia for the

first time, in my pentax. i came upon this scene on a walk in san

francisco's mission district, a very colorful part of the city. the

image of bush with distractions.. both natural (the shadows) and

unnatural (the graffiti) captured me. i framed out other windows and

garbage when i hit the shutter button. after i scanned it onto my

computer, i further cropped. the image is still a little busy to me.

i kept in the sidewalk (angled walks are a trademark of sf!) but is

there still too much going on?

I really like this photo. It has an interesting, eye-catching composition. The vertical, horizontal, and diagonal repetition is very dynamic - it almost seems to vibrate - and the patch of color from the poster gives it a focal point in the lower right third of the frame. I don't think it's too busy at all - in fact the busyness is the main attraction in this photo. It isn't random, it's very much about patterns. Cool shot, with effective cropping.

Strong, complex and compelling composition. I like this type of photo which takes a chunk of reality and produces something artistic from it. If you cut out the ground, it becomes even more abstract. I'm not sure the photo adds anything to the overall. I think it might work better cropped out.