stephen hazelton

I'd vote for just a bit of extra room in front of the locomotive.

Most of us just aren't that familiar with horse shoeing- have never actually seen it done, myself- and I think the shot sort of assumes this is a familiar operation.

Thanks Brinn- I hadn't noticed (and still don't) the noise in the sky- I'm not a digital guru, so wouldn't doubt it was there. The trash can was intentional, it seemed to contrast the sublime with the ridiculous- I agree about cutting off part of the arch, would have included that if I'd thought about it at the time. I was freezing at the time, and took several of these shots pretty fast.

Oops, looks like Monty Python is at it again! Good catch.

My grandmother lived in Oklahoma, USA, and was probably one of the last people in her area to use horses and a wagon, which she did until her two sons were old enough to buy cars. Their wagon also had rubber tires, taken from an old car.

 

I think you've captured the moment- the only thing I see that could be changed is the line of trees down the middle- perpaps catching a similar scene from the other side of the street would avoid that.

The title fits it perfectly- good spotting.

I like the land and the lighting- the houses are a bit too ordinarly for me, think it would have been a better shot before they were there.

I like the colors as well- and also noticed the cut-off tip of the roof.

I like the shot. The background just fits the man perfectly. The clutter adds some interest to the shot, but the subdued colors of the background don't overpower the subject.

I think it's a great catch. As to focus point- scanning from top left around the outside to lower right, I don't really see any other point that appears to more focused than the car- it looks to me like a little bit of camera movement combined with the car movement.

I like the composition. I don't notice the vanishing point so much as the left rail aligned with the picture border- gives a different outlook to a common shot.

It needs something, not sure what. The whole sloped area is grey, as mentioned above, and increased contrast in that area might help. If there is much greenery on those slopes, color might have been the way to go. Any recognizable object in the print would help give it a sense of scale. I suspect this would be more interesting viewed as a large print, rather than on the computer screen.

The colors look sort of cross-processed to me- not sure if that adds to the look or not, though.

 

There was a house down the street from where we used to live that had a big hedge right by the street- the kids always called it "the creepy house". But an elderly man lived there with his dogs, and he was the nicest person- one of the few neighbors we actually talked to on occasion. This house reminds me of that, makes me wonder about the people that live here. Perhaps time for another "American Gothic" shot.

 

I do like the framing effect of the shrubberies, and the depth with the sidewalk leading up to the house.

I like the coloring- would be nice if there were a way to make the lights a little more prominent in the picture.

I would suggest some additional brightness (less yellow as well) in the moon image, myself. When you look at a reflection on water, it is always darker than the object being reflected, and when the picture doesn't show that, it just looks off. The details look great, just think there's improvement to be made in the combination of them.

I like what is there, but think the shot could use more detail as well (ie, subject other than just the sunset). The angle can vary a lot here- you can crop a fairly small part out of that sunset and still have a lot of the beauty in it.

If you're looking for a period look, the wide-angle works against it- they just didn't have too many wide-angle choices back in the old days. Otherwise, an excellent combination of subjects.

It seems to me that this is a fairly static picture with a lot of motion blur, and I don't think the combination works well- I find myself wondering why the blur instead of caring about the subjects. If there was some obvious fast motion going on, this would help to emphasize, but not the case.

In the "Fine Art" category because they don't have a "Poultry and

Blacksmithing" category.

I think the B&W version works better. In it, I find myself looking at the shadows across the sand, while in the color version, I tend to see empty sand rather than the shadow pattern.

 

The problem with the pink house is that it needs to the Cherry Red house instead- something to stand out more than what it does in the color version. Similar to scenes where you might have a person in a red sweater.

I like the way the person is so small, yet is the center of the picture- the lighting forms a halo right around him.

 

I'm not a street shooter, but still I find in many scenic-type pictures, people don't detract from the picture, even if they're not required, and quite ofted add to it.

I like it- never have been able to get my wife to pose by the nekkid woman statues out at the arboretum, though.

You'd just have to experiment and see. It looks like there's enough blur in the grass that it could be a stop faster and still be blurred. But a panned shot normally won't have the subject perfectly sharp anyway- especially when the subject is moving multiple directions (unlike, say, a car).

I was once at an outdoor pavillion at near Amarillo, Texas, and they had large clear bags of water tied in several places around it- the theory was that it kept flies away for reasons unknown. Is that the motivation in this case as well?

I like this shot- he is looking interested, not bored- he's in the outdoors, looks much more natural there- good lighting on him- a close crop that shows his face well- blurred background looks good but doesn't distract from the subject.