Aristocrats

[vcutag]

I'm not sure how I feel about this one... any feedback is good.

http://www.shadesofblack.org/albums/capitol/vodka.jpg

I took it while wandering around Capitol Square after work one day, right after I got my 50 f1.8. A friend of mine suggested the composition would be better if I moved slightly to the left; I disagree, as I was trying to contrast between Jefferson's Capitol and a broken vodka bottle. I think I should have stopped it down to bring out more detail, it's hard to tell that's the Capitol in the background unless you know the place.

I dunno. Thoughts?

[Meerkat17]

I like the concept but your I feel your friend was right in a sense, however, not to the left but to the right...

If you had used the bars to divide the image into thirds the bottle would have been between the first and middle third and there would have been less empty space to the right of the image - the building in the background is just that as there is nothing to lead the eye into the background.

In my opinion the bottle is the subject and it works with the building in narrow DOF even if you had used a greater DOF I don't feel you would have succeeded in gaining much because of the angle at which the camera is at.

Just my opinion.

Regards
David

[Fer]

I agree.

[vcutag]

Maybe I'm misinterpreting the image. I am unsure how the title "Aristocrats" figures into the photo.

What the photo strongly suggests is some statement about how alcohol may be a prison.

It has a very strong graphic quality to it. If you could have included another bar in the photo, MY interpretation might be less of a stretch.

It's such an easy job being a critic.

It was a play on the brand name of the vodka and the "blueblood" reputation of the Virginia government, represented by the Capitol in the background.

Richmond's a peculiar city in that it's 70% black and yet memorializes the Civil War and the Old South... I thought these two items were kind of amusing in association with each other.

As a friend of mine who saw it said, "That picture captures Richmond in a nutshell."