Rural West Virginia

[The_Traveler]

 

[JoshuaSimPhotography]

Wow, that is...amazing. Very powerful shot. After looking for a few seconds I realised that the flag is in colour! Perhaps add more contrast to the flag to emphasise it

 

[timor]

This is, what America is proud of ?!?

 

[The_Traveler]

Wow, that is...amazing. Very powerful shot. After looking for a few seconds I realised that the flag is in colour! Perhaps add more contrast to the flag to emphasise it

Thanks, I purposefully left it a bit subtle.
No sense beating people over the head with things; I would rather the realization be almost subliminal.

This is, what America is proud of ?!?

No.

 

[JoshuaSimPhotography]

Hmmm, since there is some colour and this is a something that the usa isn't proud of perhaps this could be in the Photojournalism gallery?

 

[The_Traveler]

could be (the color thing)
I will leave it to the mods to move if they like

 

[timor]

This is, what America is proud of ?!?

No.

Relax man, I was just wondering, why you put stress on that flag. If is not the pride, then perseverance maybe ?
Decay is often interesting as it produces unexpected shapes and colors.

 

[fiziwig]

One of my favorite subjects is decaying buildings. I don't know why something so depressing and gloomy attracts me so, but it does.

I really like this shot.

 

[Ballistics]

This is, what America is proud of ?!?

No.

Relax man, I was just wondering, why you put stress on that flag. If is not the pride, then perseverance maybe ?
Decay is often interesting as it produces unexpected shapes and colors.

He gave a one word response to a simple question lol. How much further can you read into a 2-letter-worded answer?

 

[The_Traveler]

This is, what America is proud of ?!?

No.

Relax man, I was just wondering, why you put stress on that flag. If is not the pride, then perseverance maybe ?
Decay is often interesting as it produces unexpected shapes and colors.

I showed it because of the incongruity that people live in this dilapadated building yet still have the drive to put out a flag.
Any further analysis comes from the viewers.

 

[digital flower]

I wonder how many people are living in that house Its a very nice image. :thumbup:

 

[KenC]

I think this works very well. There are just two minor things that have been bugging me, probably both insignificant. One is that the contrast seems just a bit high in a way I can't put my finger on - almost looks like it has sharpening halos - maybe it's just me. The other is that I would darken or crop that bright object to the right of the flag.

 

[amolitor]

It does feel slightly oversharpened, but it's not about halos it's just an overall sense of busyness in the details combined with relatively flat global contrast. This could just be a cloudy day combined with a busy subject, though.

This is certainly an interesting structure, and I see what appealed to you about it. The juxtaposition of the flag with the building is interesting and raises questions, which is good.

What I am not getting from this is any sense of eye leading, there seems to be no visual center. The arrangement of forms is not particularly fortuitous, this looks like you simply set up wherever was convenient to cram the bits you wanted into the frame (and I concede that we are often constrained in where we can shoot from). Our eyes are not led to the important symbol, the flag. One way to say it is that there is a strong intellectual center at the flag, but it is not a visual center, and seems if anything to be an anti-center, visually. Our eyes are virtually driven away from the flag, it feels concealed in the welter of detail. You're forced to use a gimmick, selective color, to bring us to the intellectual center since the arrangement of forms drives us away from it (this is one of the reasons selective color is problematic, it's often an effort to save a failed image).

There's a solid idea here, and I dig what you're trying to accomplish. Having an idea at all places this image head and shoulders above most of what we see on the internet, make no mistake.

I just don't think you hit it with this exposure, there's just not enough stuff pulling together in the same direction to make it gel around the idea.

 

[The_Traveler]

Thank you for the thoughtful critiques.

Rather than crop off that white thing and move the flag close to the edge, I did lower its brightness some.
In an effort to reduce the overall impression of crunchiness I reduced the amount of local area enhancement and dulled the mid-tones a bit. I don't like this lower contrast version as much.

I think amolitor has a point about the composition. I tried shooting from the other corner of the building but without that denuded wall, it didn't look like much of anything. I ended up shooting this view as the best I could get with the look that was close.

thanks again for looking at this closely.

 

[alymariephotography]

A very nice capturing.. thanks for sharing..