Down by the Yodogawa

I liked this one the first second I saw the thumbnail Jack.  Of course the figure & bike make the scene  - but the composition is very nice as well.

Best, David

I like the way the tressle leads to the biker and the space you created by the grass and the sky - fine image Jack 

It looks to me that the rider is taking a break after hurdling the bridge trestles a few times - such exhausting work.  The design of this image allows no other conclusion (unless the viewer is more rational than me).  In all honesty, the image's being divided into zones is most interesting.

When I saw the thumbnail, I thought you had gone all pastoral on us, and I was gonna comment on that when I happened to look at the larger image, and therein lurked the McRitchie we all know and fear.

Hi Jack, I also thought that you had ventured into the field of pastoral but what was I thinking!!When you view this large it definitely takes you into the non pastoral. You can't help but wonder what the guy's story with the bike is about, very well captured, composed and thought provoking! All the best. Sarah

The colors, almost more mechanistic than bucolic, the rug-like texture of the ground feeling more synthetic than natural, the gray of the sky against the black and white beautifully-illuminated bike man (complete with breathing mask), the slightly piercing diagonal of the line bisecting the foreground, never allow this to be a traditional landscape for me. I love the way the bridge enters the frame and never really exits, instead receding into the distance. I like the scale of everything which provides less detail and more gestalt. The sky is soft but projects heaviness onto much of the land.

He's just a guy, found and framed, cause unknown.

David - I know what you mean. I quickly scan the thumbnails of the people a follow and some pictures just jump out at me.

tony - Yeah, I think that part works particularly well. I took this picture a couple of years ago (I'm a couple of years behind in my processing so I don't know how prescient I was in composing this but it turned out pretty well.

Drew - Always enjoy a thumbs up from you and I look forward to your next batch of photos.

Michael - I think people have that kind of stamina only in your fevered imagination. I certainly don't. I think the layering works well here. A little unusual for me.

Emmanuel - I'm too much of a curmudgeon for that. If I took a pastoral shot there would surely be a cow plop somewhere in the scene just to keep me anchored in reality.

Sarah - There's not much of the pastoral in Osaka so you don't have to worry about that. This scene is a grass-covered levee above the Yodo River.

Fred - Once again you seem to have hit the nail on the head. As I said to Sarah (above) there's nothing of the pastoral or bucolic in Osaka. It's all business. Even when they're creating "open space" it never seems to flow into the natural; it' always has a touch of the mechanistic. I'm sure this picture was a case of see picture, take picture but I can't say for certain since I took this a couple of years back and my memory fails me as to the details. In the end I think your final sentence sums it up best. Thanks as always.

Can't say more than what was said. A lesson in composition. Fav.!

This one also seems to express some longing....or maybe its me....