pnwheeler Loc: Virginia

I made this photograph last weekend. Color added nothing to the rustic autumn mountain scene under overcast sky so I desaturated the image, otherwise post processing was minimal.

Heirloom Tomato Loc: Oregon

I like this a lot. At first I thought it was heavy on the foreground rock fence, but changed my mind. The more I look at it the better I like it. Monochrome is the way to go!

Uuglypher Loc: South Dakota (East River)

First reaction:
Shed!
road!
stone wall! ...with a corner!
woods!
Neat stuff... but kinda like my kid's room before being told to pick-up before going to the mall....

I like the potenial of all the interesting things in this scene...but...the composition is confusing my eye as to what to look at when... I probably would have looked for a varietyof different perspectives from which to have viewed the scene to emphasize some components and de-emphasize others...simplify it a bit.

Dave in SD

RacerDan Loc: Virden Illinois

I cropped out the left third, added some contrast, and I think it is great. You are right, color would do nothing for this scene.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

I like the stone wall, the shed and the road. But the trees seem to distract me. Did you shoot this with a fish eye? The trees to the left are all slanting out, and that seems very unnatural. Maybe if you cropped it to vertical, losing the trees it would look better?

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

AzPicLady, EXIF data shows it was shot with a 10-2mm lens at 10mm, so yes the trees are leaning out. This could probably be altered with a perspective tweak, but I agree with you that the vertical crop is a much more pleasing solution, especially because then, ones eyes would be skipping across the right edge of the rock wall, straight to the shed. The double S in the road is a neat anchor for the right side of the picture, but even there I would crop a bit of the road at its widest part (just to the right of the small building in the distance).

Meanwhile, pnwheeler, your color balance is pretty good. Not sure what you could do with the bland skies - maybe darken them just a bit?

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

I love the texture on that wall! I was a B&W film shooter for many years, and I am now starting to get back to the grey stuff... Still learning how to make them 'pop' like this does!

pnwheeler Loc: Virginia

Good comments all! I agree, cropping the leaning trees on the left is good to both simplify and reduce the lens distortion. A bit of cropping on the right could also help. I used a Nikkor 10-24mm lens at 10mm, manual exposure, and ran the RAW through DxO Optics Pro 9. DxO made only a slight improvement. The sky is bland; I'll see what I can do to darken it or perhaps add a few clouds. I do like the texture on the wall, too, and I emphasized that on purpose. I'll give this scene another go on a sunny day sometime.

Thanks everyone!

Nightski

I am just wondering if you could go back there, and capture it so the stone wall, the road, and the front of the cabin are a little more in the frame. I would love to see that angle. If you do, be sure to post. :-)

pnwheeler Loc: Virginia

I will try that! The location is just 10 miles from where I live.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

I agree with Nightski, a reshoot may let you get some different perspectives. You identified all the good ingredients - rock wall, old cabin, winding road, bare trees - and you got them all in there, sharp and well exposed, but the way they exist in real life doesn't really let you make the best composition with them. You've got the fore-, middle- and background but the road is just kind of hanging around out there by itself. I would have tried, like you did, to get it all in, but it may not let you. You may have to wander around the place and shoot from several different angles. And you may have to resign yourself to NOT getting all those elements in one shot. Try for the cabin, rock wall and trees. Then try for the road, rock wall and back of the cabin. Try to get the road as a leading line, it looks like it'd be a good one. The wall is so nicely textured, try it from all angles - high, low, to the side, behind, in front - and see what other elements will work along with it. I bet you can find several different compositions that you'll like. But none of those elements looks portable so you will have some challenges. I agree with you that monochrome is the way to go.

Wish I had that place 10 minutes away! I'm kind of short of rock walls and log cabins. Great find.

Nightski

I laughed when I read this...at myself. I am continually wanting to get everything in the frame. Even when I get home and see that I've got way too much stuff in the frame, I have a hard time cropping it. It's like I'm cutting off my own right arm or something. I want the viewer to see everything I saw. I think understanding what you can actually bring to the viewer is the hardest thing to do in photography.

Heirloom Tomato Loc: Oregon

Nightski, you need to start shooting panoramas! :P

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

That is a really ramshackle shed/cabin/outbuilding. It is either crooked on its foundations or the wide angle lens distorted quite severely ("out of square" ).