Oil Pump Above the City

I am a complete newb and am lacking confidence in my pics. Need some guidance. (Note that I rotated it a bit to make the horizon straight, then distorted it, but forgot to crop before exporting. Thus the gaps on the side.)
Lay it on me!

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I like the idea and the composition (position of the pump and lighter part of the sky, the framing of the tress and lack of power lines). If there was more 'city' in it, it would improve it a lot, but that might require a different location or city. Or you could wait another 20 minutes and take a second shot for the city in twilight. I'm not sure how much it would help with the particular city here though.

A little bit of haloing on the left by the building which itself doesn't add much (looks like you tried to lighten it), but I'm not sure a 'complete newb' needs to worry too much about those details.

I'd like to see more of your shots like this (I looked at your Flickr, but it's completely different). Are you planning on shooting more landscape-type shots?

Yes, I do plan to shoot more landscapes, but have a difficult time getting out to these spots at the right time. A lot of my exposures come out underexposed, perhaps bc I do a poor job of calibrating settings before hand. So I end up brightening via post processing hence the halo.

I couldn't put more city into it, as it would show a lot of signage and distracting fencing just below the pump.

Thanks for the input!

My guidance is pretty harsh on this one... put it in the bit bucket

I applaud you for considering the background and for realizing there was singe bend so you're stuck with the angle you had, but there's really not much of interest here for the average viewer. Yes, a sunset, but you've got to find a stunning location for a sunset and this doesn't do it for me.

No need to toss the pic. Keep it around so you can compare it to other better photos as your skill progresses.

Thank you.

planet5D wrote in post #16893532
My guidance is pretty harsh on this one... put it in the bit bucket

I applaud you for considering the background and for realizing there was singe bend so you're stuck with the angle you had, but there's really not much of interest here for the average viewer. Yes, a sunset, but you've got to find a stunning location for a sunset and this doesn't do it for me.

I can take harsh comments and actually prefer it, as it is the quickest way for me to learn. I've been reading books on composition, but feel I have learned very little from it.

Is that one of those half-moon shaped oil deals? If so the photo would have benefitted from a different angle to really show that off in the silouhette IMO.

smitroc wrote in post #16894334
Is that one of those half-moon shaped oil deals? If so the photo would have benefitted from a different angle to really show that off in the silouhette IMO.

I agree. But given the location, I was not able to catch it, and I would have missed the sunset at that angle.

Bingo. I totally agree with this.

When you do a silhouette, it's all about shape. The shape conveyed here is just an incoherent blob. The right vantage point, the right profile (possibly that clarifies what the object is) would vastly improve the image.

smitroc wrote in post #16894334
Is that one of those half-moon shaped oil deals? If so the photo would have benefitted from a different angle to really show that off in the silouhette IMO.

p00kienrayray wrote in post #16891973
I couldn't put more city into it, as it would show a lot of signage and distracting fencing just below the pump.

The biggest problem is lack of a foreground, and it sounds like that was impossible. Sometimes you want a photograph to work out but just can't get all the elements to come together, but you still try to make it work anyway. In those cases you just need to toss the photo, or not take it. Getting the proper vantage point sometimes seems to be the hardest part of photography.