Post Sunset - Dusk In The Valley

32 second exposure deep into dusk. The shot here was taken about an hour-fifteen after THIS SHOT.

Below you is the little hamlet of Klienbottwar, Germany. About 25 min from Stuttgart.

As you can see, the sun is now long down, and the streetlights are beginning to rule the night. BUT there was still just enough ambient light to get the valley - with a generous exposure time.

WHAT I LIKE:

1) My wife loves it. It reminds here of our trip.
2) The town almost seems to run like a stream through the shot.
3) All of the roads and paths that criss cross through the shot seems to really involve me, as a viewer, by encouraging me to allow my vision to wander throughout.

WHAT I DON'T LIKE:

1) The plastic posts that are supporting the grape vines. I would love to crop 10 or 20 percent off the bottom, but the narrower center posts stick up so high, that a clone job would be daunting, and if I don't clone them out, well, then they would be just disembodied things - without a context - poking up from the bottom margin.

Technique:
Canon 5D Mk II
f/5
32 seconds
75mm on a 28-135IS

Comments?

Rad

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I really like the picture

Totally agree with your views, both the pluses and minuses. You are right, cloning them out would be a mighty job, and cropping them out would diminish the overall composition. Maybe a balance between the two - crop a little, clone a little?

The only thing I wonder about is whether it is straight. I look to the buildings and the verticals seem straight enough. I know the hills in the distance are rolling hills, but they seem to be leaning to the right.

If you have CS5 you can try to use content aware and let it remove the posts.
btw, Very nice photo.

I think it needs to be a bit darker to truly reflect the time of day.