Coats of Men and Women Who Serve Us

This is an image that I took a few years back.

I entered it into a Show Us Your America Contest and I thought it would be fitting for today.

Any feedback would be great.

Thanks

MIME changed to 'text/html' | Content warning: data

I really like the subject of the photo. I wish the light was less bright on the gear as the shadows might show a little more wear and character to the subject of the photo.

I really like it. My nitpick is that there seems to be a bit too much contrast or color saturation.

Yeah, I agree with the saturation. I was new to post processing at this time, and I went a little crazy with it.

It looks messy, the hose should either be all in or removed completely, way too much contrast and I am not sure that the acres of black to the left really adds to the composition. Swinging the camera clockwise would have reduced the black (dead) space and included all of the hose,or possibly not is that a white wall running down the right edge of the frame? There is something very odd going on along that right edge.

Maybe some cropping might help with the left dark space and the wall on the right side. Very fitting since 9/11 anniversary yesterday. (never forget).

I was at my daughters soccer game yesterday, some dad put up a 30' pole with a huge American flag for the game. It was really cool of him to do that. Turned out he was a police officer.