Parking lot time warp - revised

YES! Much more interesting photo this way. Some won't, but I do like the lone street lamp in the background. Great job.

I agree with Fred regarding the street lamp, it adds to the sense of the night, the grouping of vehicles suggests to me a meeting of "the Mob" perhaps or something of that era. 

Great Mood! 

Alf 

A revised version, this time with the background brought back in, but still

without the neon lights.

Let us play a bit more with time travels Leslie

Thanks, Fred, Alf, and Michail!

Fred, I really appreciate your suggestions for improving this—I’m enjoying how the background has become an important part of the image now—good call!

Thanks, Alf! I had a lot of fun with this one -- got it handheld at 0.3 sec, f4, ISO 800 with an old point & shoot, so there was a lot of post-processing to deal with noise and sharpness.

And Michail, I love it! I’m still laughing over the bullet holes. I’d also tried a black and white conversion (with a lot of grain—it also solved my noise problem)—you’re right that the subject seems to beg for that treatment, and I’ll probably upload it in the near future—I’d love to get your feedback on my b&w conversion when I upload it; I'm still not completely comfortable with my efforts at conversions.

Leslie, +2 on Fred's and Alf's comments. The background adds depth that was otherwise missing. The streetlight can stay or go, as best fits your vision for the image. I look forward to the B&W version.

For me, the black and white robs it of much of its appeal. I love black and white photos but think it's not always a great way to go, and find there's often too quick a move toward converting to black and white almost as a default artistic position. I actually think good color photos are more of a challenge, in many cases, but also can come with more rewards when done with care and attention. I think the colors here are very expressive and there's a good balance between the abstraction of the compositional approach to the content and the soft color tones that help the more literal side of the photo.