WC #568 - Prescott Farm

Nancy - While the shadow certainly does add an interesting pattern to the spans of grassy area, I'm not sure I agree about it making the photo. But that, of course, is purely subjective. The star of the show here has to be the red building. And in that vain, I find the tree, which is a supporting element, to be commanding more attention than does the red building: First, by its closeness to the camera, and secondly, the fact that it literally blocks the view of a good portion of the building. In essence, I don't think your chosen composition is optimum for the subject matter presented here.

I like the shadow, how it leads to the barn, and the strongly saturated green grass and red barn. I wonder what this would have looked like if you squatted down to reduce the overlap of the tree and barn and moved a couple of step right to shift the barn further right in the image. As is, I think cropping from the right to eliminate the bright trunk of the first tree in the background helps pull your major elements together.

I agree with Mark in that shooting at a lower angle would have produced a more pleasing compositon. The big limb would have almost framed the building had you shot lower. Keep trying!

As with most scenes, there are lots of possible choices. Here you have at least two interesting elements that compete for attention. Given the point of view of this composition, the tree's shadow is indeed an essential element. It adds a lot to the scene. I agree that this particular composition would be much weaker without the fg tree and its shadow. It's a better photograph of the tree shadow than the red building, so it looks like you were photographing the shadow rather than the building. Nothing wrong with that, but the building is such a strong element in this view, it comes close to stealing the show. I guess it's a matter of focus (not the fuzzy vs. sharp kind): Do you want a picture of the shadow or of the building? You could probably move around and get TWO shots that would each be better compositions. If you want it all in a single shot, this is not a bad compromise, but it is a compromise. I think Mark's idea of a lower perspective would concentrate more on the building, but may not have been as good a shot of the shadow. I think if you want to portray both elements, a more extreme wide angle shot, reducing the apparent size of the building, might be another good idea to explore.

The tree certainly does make a very interesting shadow. As others have noted, you have two strong and possibly competing elements in this image. One thought would be that if you would have stepped back quite a bit to give more view of the tree, allowing it to be more dominant, then the building would also lessen in dominance. Irregardless, I like the shadow you found and the nice blend of colors in this image, Nancy.

I have no quarrel with any part of this image. You have done an excellent job of making it about the tree's shadow. I think this is a very tight composition that happens to have rich colors. Kudos.

You've got the red-green complementaries with the tree shadows acting as a connecting element. I think the upper limb of the tree is much more interesting as a framing device than a clearly viewed roof would have been. The combination of the tree limb and the tree shadow as a frame for the bright red building works pretty well for me. If anything, I would be tempted to crop to a 4x5 from the right edge.

Thanks to all my nice NPN friends who have been commenting on this image. This was (so far) my one and only visit to Prescott Farm and this image is probably the best one I have with these particular elements in it. However, it's not far from where I normally stay when I'm in Rhody, so one day I'll very likely give it another try (preferably when the color returns in the grass!--although maybe a good coating of snow wouldn't be bad) and will keep some of your comments and suggestions in mind, especially shooting from a lower angle. R.I. historical buildings are one of my ongoing projects (I just posted several of Fort Adams on my website) and I'll keep going back until I nail them just right. Thank you!