Smoke Stack Hazeby
aaronwaveComment by mffnqueen: Greetings from the Critique Club!
What a great find! I love reading the Photographer's comments to each photo, especially this one. Nowadays I refuse to drive whenever I'm going out of town, because I'm always staring out the window looking for potential photos!
The first thing that comes to mind in this photo is composition. In all honesty, the sky here is not very interesting. Much of it is blown out to a bright white, and the clouds aren't all that special, either. Given that, the fact that the sky takes up nearly 2/3 of the photos really hurts it, in my opinion. The most interesting parts of the photo are the steam coming from the smokestacks and the factory itself. If you could have zoomed in more on those (which may or may not have been possible, depending on your camera and lens), I think it would have been a much more interesting photo.
Also, the image seems slightly tilted. The sliver of ground (or water?) in the bottom left corner is a little distracting. If you had included more of the ground, whatever it is, I think it would have added more to the context and perspective of the photo. I personally would have composed the frame with the top edge just above the smoke coming from the tallest smokestack, and the bottom right edge maybe a quart to a half of an inch below the edge of the factory.
I really like your use of black and white in this shot. Considering the conditions, I can't imagine the original color was all that interesting, and I think the grayscale really brings out the steam coming from the smokestacks. I think some selective dodging and burning could have brought out even more of the detail in the shot.
I hope these comments have been helpful. Good luck!
Photographer found comment helpful.