Steps on a grey day

[GlenM]

So, I had an hour spare this morning while travelling between clients.

I had the camera in the car, but no tripod - left it at home today...

It was cold, grey and murky, but I thought I may as well see what I could do anyway so made a small detour to the coast.

Given the overcast day, I went for the dark and gloomy look and converted to black and white.

English weather being what it is, within an hour of me getting back on the road again, the sun has come out and it is a glorious day!

C&C welcome.

Glen

[MiniChris]

I think I would go in and give the centered buildings in the background a touch of burning...especially the center white one...not much but enough to not draw attention away from the steps...I do find the thingy on the wall a bit annoying but suspect it would be a bit on the hard side to clone out...and, now I am being picky and didn't intend to go this way, but the little bit of litter in the foreground (left side) - I would have kicked it out of the way...

Tonal values are great and I love the sky - you can easily clone out the litter and while the thingy is annoying, it isn't enough so not to have this as a keeper...that was a lot of wind out of me so early....

[Black Pearl]

I too would go with a tighter crop, great tones and texture though.

[Donald]

I like it! I like it!

But I'd want to crop to lose the strong vertical on the left and, as Chris says, the 'thingy' on the right. You're still going to have a very strong image.

[mythlady]

I like it too -- I like the moodiness of the sky and the birds flying in the distance. At first I liked the thingy because it looked interesting, but then I realized my eye was drawn to it first and that's probably not what you want. Nice work!

[ScoutR]

Thumbs up from me too. Great shot. The thingy can stay or go, I didn't look at it long before my eyes went to the sky and the birds and the buildings. Everything else in this shot is just so wonderful, that the thingy does not bother me, it 's just there. I'd get rid of the garbage though, and I'm not sure if it's just me (I have trouble with this) but could it use a very slight counter clockwise rotation?

Well done, love the mood, much better than it would have been with the sun out.

Wendy

[Wirefox]

Very nice tones Glen. I agree that the crop needs to be tightened but for me I would have tried a drastic approach. The steps are leading me upward on a journey and it does this very well. The problem is the thingy on the right it competes with the flow of the scene. You cannot crop all of it out but cropping most of it away (just to the right of where the lettering finishes) will take the focus off the thingy. This will mean an equalish crop to the left-hand side (removing the doorway). This will give a tall narrow frame that works well with stairs. The right hand railing will converge with the frame a 1/3 of the way down so the balance is retained. I will also be picky and say that your verticals are sot on but the stairs slope to the right - this is purely the angle of shooting.

[Shadowman]

Lines everywhere, definitely a lot of eye movement generated by the composition.

[GlenM]

Thanks all for the comments. I appreciate the help and advice on this, I have only had a dslr for a couple of months, and it is a very steep learning curve!
The 'thingy' on the right is a lifesaver - the sea is just to the left of the wall, and at high tide comes up to the steps (hence the sand on the floor).
At the time of taking the shot, I didn't even notice the rubbish on the floor! I was too busy concentrating on the steps and getting the old houses into the background (and trying to keep my hands steady at 1/30 in the freezing cold with no gloves!).

I'll have a tidy up on the rubbish and try a couple of crops to remove the thingy and post them back later today.

Cheers
Glen

[GlenM]

I have had a quick clean up and crop to tighten the image and get rid of the rubbish and the thingy.

Glen

[Donald]

YES!

What I'm seeing now that I didn't see before is that lovely line of the high railing on the left, dropping down past the lampposts and disappearing behind the top step.