First post..input appreciated

I've been checking out this forum for awhile now, finally got around to putting up an image.

This is not really urban, since it's in the desert, but you'll get the idea.

This was taken with a 20d at f8 and 1/100 ISO 100 and a polarizer on the 10-22 at 14mm

Please offer any critques, comments, or questions, if so moved.

Cheers,

James

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Well talk about stiking out like a sore thumb. Not sure what to say about. I like the scenery though.

Kaine

Great shot. It really speaks of the middle of know where.

I was going for the yellow when I took the shot, didn't get as much snap out of it as I wanted.

Any thoughts on technique or composition? I appreciate your responses.

Excellent picture. Keep up the good work.

awesome! where do you live? your profile says NYC but it looks like the photo's in Arizona.

Nice picture with main lines centrally located. You could try applying the rule of thirds here, such as offsetting the subject and the horizon so that they fall within the imaginary horizontal and vertical lines that trisect the frame. Very nice play of colours, which I suspect what attracted your eye in the first place. Try underexposing it a bit to bring out those rich details lost in the background bush, and boost up the saturation a bit in PS. Now this isn't in NYC right? Welcome to the forums!

jwbker, I have really been working on my own post processing lately and found your pic compelling to try my newer workflows:

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I'll break the suspense to say, yes, I live in Manhattan but we lack cacti and open spaces short of the Park. psychopyro had it right with Arizona as the setting, good guess. Have you spent time there?

I'm only using the Canon utility and PS Elements at the moment, but I will get PSCS soon, which is why there's not a lot of PP done on the image. I am certainly interested in seeing your edits and learning your workflows.

About your edit, Cosworth, I like the blue you got from the sky the best. With the fire hydrant I was trying to capture the vividness of the yellow against the sky. I think a wider aperture on a bit longer lens would have done it for me, in retrospect. (Compositionally, I think the clouds get in the way in this image but I still like it overall. Might make it my avatar for starters.)

BottomBracket, thanks for reminding of the rule of thirds, a concept I think anyone is exposed to (no pun intended). It's always the neglected basic things that catch you most of the time. As you noted, the colors grabbed me and I got carried away with the sky. Again, a compositional error. The clouds come back to haunt the image again, since without them I think a crop would work nicely for this one. Next time I'm back, I'll wait for a clear blue sky and redo the photo. Could you elaborate on underexposing to bring out the detail in the brush in the background?

Thanks to all for your comments and encouragement.

James

This shot might have won last month's "Out of Place" competition here on POTN.

Just something different..!

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Nice comp, good effect. Welcome to POTN James!

Formulated, that looks great.

Hey James! The rule of thirds is just a suggestion. I didn't mean to say that you made a compositional error, in fact I like your pic. I just wondered how it would look with the rule of thirds in effect. The sky is incredible. Do you have any pictures of those saguaros?

The brushe looks awash in light too much. Perhaps by underexposing by 1/3 to 2/3 EV, there would be more detail in there. This will ( at least I hope it will) render better color saturation too for that part, and the rest of the photo. By the way, Cosworth has done a splendid job, but the blown detail on the brush gives him little to work with in that area.

I am in NYC too. Perhaps us NYorkers can meet up and do some street photography.

Keep warm!

Pio

BB, f5 the pic and see if the light burn I applied helped.