Bridge over shortest canal in Amsterdam

Comments/critiques welcome. Cheers, Sam.

too dark, and focus of picture is unclear - what are we supposed to be looking at? the people? the building at the rear? or the no propellers sign (are they referring to low flying aircraft i wonder? :)

Duncan, thanks very much for your interesting remarks & questions. On my monitor this photo is bright & clear - as far as light conditions at 52 degrees North have permitted. Monitors & graphic cards differ a lot & do not always produce exactly the same image quality. Concerning the subject(s), I think you've done the right thing & looked at everything shown in this image, & wondered, made up your own stories - that's what looking at pictures, at least for me, is all about. It should be about stimulating the mind, instead of judging them according to some arbitrary rules of the photographing game. I would have been shocked if you would'nt have found anything to look at or to wonder about. Life is rather chaotic. Perhaps that aspect has been depicted here. Cheers, Sam.

Hi Sam. i understand what you are saying. Can i make some suggestions? To me the picture is most disjointed because too much is either half in and half out of the shot. The buildings on eith side have their top halves cut off. The red car draws the attention because its one of the brightest things in the shot, and thats only half present. The people on the bridge do make your point of lifes business but they are too small to ... significantly make this point. I would have taken this shot in Portriat format to hopefully close in on the interesting aspects. If you think about Amsterdam, the most interesting aspects are the tall buldings, the bridges, the canals and the sneaked at views these allow. Not red cars and half height buildings... i hope i dont come across as too critical. I never actually managed to take a good shot in A'dam because of this unique but very crowded geography. please let me know if you wish me to delete this diatribe :) All the best, regards, Duncan

Duncan, thanks very much for your explanations. To my great surprise I've rather recently found out that, although I was born & have been raised (18 years long) in Amsterdam, I have great difficulty in photographing that city!

Give me any other city, & a normal camera will produce fairly good shots. Amsterdam's streets are too narrow & the houses relatively too tall, the streets are full of the jumble you correctly describe. Perhaps by cutting off the tops of buldings on this photo is due to an infantile regression. When I walked the streets of A'dam as a kid, I apparently only looked downward & never consciousky noticed the often very interesting & beautiful upper parts of houses. When I came back after 45 years, I noticed them for the 1st time! On my 'biycles in Amsterdam' site I've tried to bring some order in the urban chaos A'dam is producing in my eyes. Anyway, it's very good to hear somebody's experienced opinion. Cheers, Sam.