This has a lot going for it. Great sense of space... and the fountain (what an amazing structure!) is beautifully captured. The water looks like water, too, which doesn't always happen! What disturbs my eye is that the vertical alignment is correct for the building, which is just so much background. This makes the fountain look as if it is falling over to the left. There also seems to be some barrel distortion that is a little disturbing. Hmmm. I just spent a few minutes correcting those leaning verticals, but then the barrel distortion became really unsettling... Pity there wasn't a higher vantage point from which to have taken it. (By the way, when I was playing with the verticals, I noticed that there was some spare dynamic range under your darkest grey, and when I shifted that down to black, the image looked better balanced.) Fascinating image, though. I really like it. And like Charlie I feel there's an even better picture in there somewhere. This would have been a good picture for the "Help" project.
Dan, I'm having a hard time with this one. I really like the fountain itself, I think it's a very impressive and attractive subject. You really did the water justice with the longer exposure. What I think is missing is a compositional element, but I can't pinpoint the problem. The building in the background is distracting and so is the overexposed sky. Maybe a different angle and closer crop of the fountain with all of the building as a backdrop and then blur the building with a shallower depth-of-field. Or maybe the shot you have now with the background blurred. I really think the fountain is a worthy subject for your photo and there's a good composition somewhere that will do it justice. Yes, the more I think about it, the problem is too much of the scene is in focus; only the fountain should be in sharp focus. Hope these comments help, and keep in mind I'm no expert and these are just my own personal observations. Good luck,
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{K:86139} 11/29/2003