special gifts

Changed aspect ratio, got the uninteresting sidewalk out of the pic and pushed the signs into the upper right and the contrast between the headshop and the classic gift shop into the lower left. Seems to work much better for me but the number's tell. Thanks for everyone's time and effort to stop and review.

66

It lacks accents - too much grey and almost no white, and the accents in black do no help the composition. For drawings we were told to keep the eyes almost closed to discover them, in desktop publishing programmes sometimes the "autolevels" do, otherwise I don't know which is the option. Anybody?

 

Otherwise I like the diagonal composition, and the shop entrance in the foreground, just that the later would have needed to be emphasized.

 

I also like the silent Sunday morning atmosphere, with no people at all, rather than ones who would have nothing to do with the subject.

 

I too played with cropping, but not resubmitted, in the hope that the follow up on comments will be read - maybe it is a good idea.

Maria Bostenaru, Thank you for your kind and helpful comments. It's been far too many years since I attended any art related classes and all techniques have evaporated but your reminding me of squinting to find the accents is much appreciated. I've found myself doing that from time to time without really remembering quite why. This pic was taken nearing sunset on a weekday with a wind chill appropriately street clearing, thus the lack of activity. And I'd walked past it at least once and decided not to take a shot because of the light even though it was better illuminated; should've as there's no easy way now to reverse the highlights as they occur in the piece. It's also heartening to hear the diagonal composition being on the right track in your opinion, this being a subject I had to let drop far too many years ago when I became far too technically oriented in my career to 'see' when I 'looked'. BTW, this place is across the street and not too far up the block from the hotel where coverage of the New Hampshire Primaries occurs every four years in our election cycle. This being historically quite an openly conservative town, the sight of this shop really had me chuckling. But of course it's relevant only to Americans, I think, and wasn't intended to be part of any meaning buried in the composition. One other note is that the headshop was quite dark inside alhough not closed, not a big surprise in my experience, which made it all the more difficult to find a decent exposure. And if you very very closely, there's a classic Schwinn Stingray bicycle in the window which I believe was for sale. In the '60s, such a thing would've been as likely as seeing free tattooing offered at the bank for opening a new account. Sorry, bit of a mightily obscure reference there. Thanks again for your time to comment though, you've been most helpful.

saul santos diaz, thanks for your most generous rating.