'Quitting Time at Sidewalk Bazaar'

Days are almost as long as they will be as the summer solstice is just

around the corner, the mugginess of summer has arrived, tomatoes

already are bursting with ripeness, the once a year strawberries (the

tasty kind not the year-round sour everbearing type) fill crates and

baskets with their fruit-scented freshness, and this exhausted pair is just

about to fold up their sidewalk produce kiosk as 8:00 p.m. approaches,

and gathering clouds threaten to chase them home with huge waves of

thundershowers following a bright but muggy day. Your ratings, critiques

and observations are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly, very

critically, or wish to make a remark, please submit a helpful and

constructive comment; please share your photographic knowledge to

help improve my photography. Thanks! Enjoy! john

Mostly all middle grey; too much.  Maybe more contrast, enhance->contrast would help. The wide angle lens caused her right arm to loom into the foreground looking disproportionate to the rest of her.

Some kind of artifact on the tree trunk (I circled in the attachment). That could have been cloned out.

It's a grey scene; I contrast enhanced it as much as it would stand and that's it.  Grey is grey; you play with the hand you are dealt; this is a middle grey scene from top to bottom except the right, which was bright but which I darkened somewhat as it bordered on being 'blown out'.

As to her arm, so be it; it just shows to me she's close, but if it bothers you, then it bothers you -- it causes me no problem.

The 'artifact' on the 'tree trunk' you complain of, is nonexistent, after careful look at the original and the worked up version.  The tree is ringed with white paint at the bottom presumably so birds can spot dark insects easier and pick them off --- such paint is applied almost universally every year in former Soviet countries in the urban areas, and also is commonly found in the United States, applied for the same reason,.

The fence slats are of uneven height, with a sort of corkscrew like device or twisted root-like affair hanging from it and to the right a 'cardboard' box upside down (corrugated board box), stuck atop the slats.  That's it.  No artifact at all.    Time for a glasses check, but I know that's sensitive, and you do the best you can, and also this is from a 72 dpi rendition, and I'm working with a 24 megapixel version, so I have a distinct advantage and absolute knowledge.

Kyiv is absolutely huge; bazaars are everywhere, not just where the Metro stops (each stop almost) but where the trolleybus stops, and it's hard even to get a map of the trolleybuses, let alone figure out where they go, except to ride and ride them, and it almost takes an act of God to get a schematic of their route system (God hasn't favored me yet).

When I think I've seen it all, I try to find a trolleybus, get off at a station (or the end of the line), and work the bazaar there.

Undoubtedly it'll be one I have not previously seen, and undoubtedly, I'll make new friends, as the people at such places have almost NEVER encountered a stranger with a camera, unlike those at bazaars near the Metro stops and in the more central urban areas!  

As a result, some of the people are more friendly, and conversation with some can be had (including this day some ribald conversation with some older Ukrainian men and one Polish gentleman, plus the local half-wit, to whom I gave dignified attention.

Scenes like this, seemly so casual and simple, are almost impossible to get; people are so askance when they see a camera (this is a hip shot!).

I happen to like its composition very, very much, and rank it highly among my works.

(unlike raters so far ;~(()

john

John (Crosley)

I'll buy the paint job explanation but (a misunderstanding) I said nothing about the fence slats.

The arm does not bother me.  It would only bother me if it were my photograph.

The arm does not "bother" you.  Well it should.

And I will constructively add that you often use a short focal length when  a normal or longer would be better. 

The viewers who rated did not leave comments. I left comments but did not rate. Which do you prefer?

Hell John, if it were not for me you'd have here no feedback and nothing to read. You're welcome.