Old Boots Loc: Caldwell Co., Texas

House with 10 acres and pond. The pond doesn't show in this photo. It is just this side of the wooden gate.
Any and all changes and comments welcome. Thanks.
Lee

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jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

I'd move the centers of interest (house & tree) off center by cropping some off the right & the bottom. I think doing so would make a decent photo better.

Nightski

Old Boots, when I open a pic titled Country House, I am expecting an old, beautifully kept farm house with Gingham curtains in the window. I think what you are trying to convey here is country living. You even mentioned the pond that is not in the photo. Now a whole shot of the acreage with all it's blessings is a very hard shot to get. If you concentrated more on one thing on this country lot, instead of trying to capture the whole enchilada, you would come up with a much more pleasing image. Simply a close of up of the barb wire fence leading to that beautiful tree when the sun is golden. If you do want to capture the house, get closer to it, and frame up something that is special about it. I'm sure there are many things you love about country living. Start a little smaller. :-)

jgordon Loc: Boulder CO

Nice colors and I think that the concept is good.

I agree that a more interesting framing would put the tree near the left edge of the photo. Cutting out some of the foreground can help. One of the issues with the photograph is the washed out sky – which might be helped a little with post-processing.

Overall I like the concept of this photo better than the execution, but this mage is not far away from being a wonderful photograph.

Old Boots Loc: Caldwell Co., Texas

Thanks jaymatt. I'll have some with your suggestion.
Lee

Old Boots Loc: Caldwell Co., Texas

Thanks Nightski. I had just walked out of the woods and shot this from about 1/2 mile away.
Lee
P.S. Most country here in south Texas is a little rougher than the picture you described.

Old Boots Loc: Caldwell Co., Texas

Thanks jgordon. I'll give the sky some PSE treatment. I didn't like it either but no clouds around at the time.
Lee

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

Hey Boots, love the country life and could not be more jealous!

With that said, here goes...

- The sky is blown out, but can easily be fixed on-camera with a polarized filter. Seriously, get one and you will never turn back! It can be fixed in post, but why go to all that effort.

- The horizon and the house are dead center. No offence, but boring! The eye likes movement and a good photo gives it a place to go. When focus is dead center the eye has no where to go and you get bored. Luckily most cameras have an optional grid you can turn on to help you move your focal point to one of the 'Golden' positions. You can fix it in post, but of course you are going to loose part of your photo doing it so again it is better in-camera.

- The story is...? I understand you are trying to show the expanse of the country, but what is the story. Here try this - what is the most important part of this photo? The tree, the house? Either way, why are they so small in the scope of things? In-camera either walk up to it or zoom in. This is one of the easier things to fix in post at least and sometimes I purposely shoot wide to make sure I have what want, but then I always go exploring and shoot tighter and tighter looking for that shot I would have otherwise missed. Whatever you do think about what you are trying to say and make sure we hear it!

- Another thing you can do when shooting something like this is to get low. If I had to guess, you walked to the spot, stood there and took the photo. You are roughly 5' 8" tall. Most people shoot this way and you can always tell. Bend down, get low. It will change the way everything looks and add more interest.

I hope this helps and thank you for sharing! Steve

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Just a quick edit to show one possibility. A panorama crop doesn't lose the spacey feel that I'm assuming you wanted to capture, but it does bring the house in a bit closer.
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Nightski

This is a smart edit. Nicely done, RG.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Thank you, Nightski.

Old Boots Loc: Caldwell Co., Texas

Thanks R.G. This is exactly the thing I am looking for. I walked out of the woods and said "Civilization !" I was about 1/2 mile away. I did do some more zooms with SX50 and walked up closer. I was trying to show the distance, so the panorama does that. Thanks, good crop.
Lee

Heirloom Tomato Loc: Oregon

This is a low res photo, so that limits results a bit... but here is a version which attempts to bring out some of the character in this rural Texas scene. Others have mentioned ways to improve future shots, but this shows one way to present this with more depth of color, and panoramic cropping.

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Old Boots Loc: Caldwell Co., Texas

Thanks H.T. What did you do to the sky to give it the buttermilk look?
Lee

Old Boots Loc: Caldwell Co., Texas

Added blue sky with magic brush PSE12

RG's pano with blue sky

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