Streets ahead

Another photo sent to my by Kirk Miller ... an intriguing landscape with street sign. The viewer wonders 'What's a road sign doing in the fields?' A great 'hook'.

I guess it's the name of his street. What an unusual way to show the place where you live. Much more interesting that a row of houses.

The composition is intriguing, too ... the way the diagonally-placed street sign leads the viewer’s eye towards the distant snow-capped mountains. And the clouds circle around the end of the sign. Then there are the crop lines in the field waving away to a distant clump of trees. The eye is kept quite busy. But there’s always the central subject, the street sign – urban contrasting with rural.

A couple of suggestions.

Kirk tells me that he took this with the aperture at f8, and I guess he was focusing on the street sign. This means that the distant mountains are slightly out of focus.

If he’d stopped his lens down to its minimum aperture (probably f22 ... which would lead to a slow, slow shutter speed so he’d almost certainly have to use a tripod) then he’d be able to use the increased depth of field to get both sharp.

Another thing I notice is a dust spot. You may not be able to see it on the web, but here is a section at 100% with the levels increased to make it stand out.

Looks like a UFO. But it isn't. Just grot (sorry Kirk). I’m finely attuned to the stuff as as it’s the surest way of getting your images rejected by an agency.

Do you suffer? I do. It’s a big problem with digital cameras that have interchangeable lenses. There’s not time to go into it now, but I will cover the topic in a later entry.

The main thing is not to stress about it. Like taxes, which many of us will be doing at this time of year, it’s inevitable.