How About Some Friendly Critique

[midnitejam]

Late Evening
Canon D300 | Kit Lens | 38 mm
Shutter Priority (1/30)
ISO 400
Fill-Flash (to capture foreground)

[graylady]

Nice place

I find the clear twig on the bottom left calling too much attention. Maybe stting your flash less intense would help but I think that taking just a few steps to get in front of it would help more as it would give more "presence" to the house instead of the big tree on the left. The result would be a more "balance" picture I believe.

I would sure like to give a try at such a nice place.

Thanks for showing it to us.

Graylady

[sheila]

Well done. If that's the kit lens, its looks pretty good to me!

Cheers
Sheila

[midnitejam]

Nice place

I find the clear twig on the bottom left calling too much attention. Maybe stting your flash less intense would help but I think that taking just a few steps to get in front of it would help more as it would give more "presence" to the house instead of the big tree on the left. The result would be a more "balance" picture I believe.

I would sure like to give a try at such a nice place.

Thanks for showing it to us.

Graylady

Thanks for the comments, Ladies.

I tried to make this image work by originally cropping out the left most twig, but the crop took away from the sensation of depth and sepparation (3-D).

I tried to rationalize leaving the twig in the image by trying to make a case for the rule of continuation (the trees on the left border, the rock, and the trees on either side of the building). Each outcome had its trade offs.

What really surpprised me was the Krazy late-evening light that rendered hardly any shadows.

[ugot2bkdng]

This is a nice snapshot of a lovely scene.

Since you asked, here is my opinion from a technical perspective. I agree with Graylady on the composition. With the DOF the way it is, it is hard to tell what the subject was. What f-stop and which autofocus mode were you using? The foreground is obviously sharper than the building. The other thing that I find a bit distracting is the image is rotated about 1.3 degrees CCW. The devil is in the details.

These comments are in the spirit of trying to be constructive. I hope they are of some assistance.

[midnitejam]

This is a nice snapshot of a lovely scene.

Since you asked, here is my opinion from a technical perspective. I agree with Graylady on the composition. With the DOF the way it is, it is hard to tell what the subject was. What f-stop and which autofocus mode were you using? The foreground is obviously sharper than the building. The other thing that I find a bit distracting is the image is rotated about 1.3 degrees CCW. The devil is in the details.

These comments are in the spirit of trying to be constructive. I hope they are of some assistance.

ugot2bkdng, your comments have been great assistance and are very much appreciated.

Exif:
Canon D300
Fill-Flash
Focal length= 34
Exposure= 1/30
Aperture= f/5.6
ISO= 400
White Balance= (-1)
Metering Mode= matrix (5)
Exposure Program= shutter priority (2)
Hand held from knee level