Harbour Giveaway

DavidS

This is a photo from a daytrip my family and I took to Oriental, a quaint little harbor town in North Carolina. An elderly man was giving away apples, from the trunk of his car, that he had picked in the mountains.

Does this photo have any merit? How could it be improved? Or am I just partial to it because of the memories?

Scott_Quier

You asked for comments, so....

My first thought is that there is a lot going on in this photo, a lot of distractsion so it's hard to figure out where to focus. You have

• The person with the child
• The car
• The gentleman sitting in the chair
• The backdrop of the two boats/ships.

I think the photo is dominated by the ships.

Since your intent was/is to focus on the man with the apples (which we can't see here), it may have been better to get a little closer and put the man into better context.

DavidS

Scott_Quier wrote:

You asked for comments, so....

My first thought is that there is a lot going on in this photo, a lot of distractsion so it's hard to figure out where to focus. You have

• The person with the child
• The car
• The gentleman sitting in the chair
• The backdrop of the two boats/ships.

I think the photo is dominated by the ships.

Since your intent was/is to focus on the man with the apples (which we can't see here), it may have been better to get a little closer and put the man into better context.

Thanks. I appreciate your input. I want to improve. I have a lot to learn.

wxwax

I tend to agree with Scott, not sure where my eye is supposed to go?

In order, I think it goes from the boats to the car to the two people sitting on the steps, and finally to the guy by the boxes.

My sense is that you tried to get everything into the shot. Instead, you might want to think about what this particular shot is about, then make that the strongest, most obvious part of the image. Then try to balance the composition. The rule of thirds is a useful tool for doing this.

For example, if you want to show the apple seller, get low and close to the seller, and have the boats be in the background.

saurora

I totally agree with everyone. Too much going on. The huge ships are wonderful, but compete ( instead of adding to) the story taking place with the apple-selling. I would have moved in much closer (and at a different angle) to shoot the boy and the seller. I think the angle and the distance you are shooting from allows the ships to take over the image, but to me the story is the apple-selling.

DavidS

Thanks everyone for taking the time to give me feedback on this. I appreciate it very much.