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This photo was taken from my car window and I like it -though I'm not sure why. I try to cull photos just after uploading them from my SD card. This helps prevent me from becoming too nostalgic about a particular shot and frees up much needed space on my hard drive. So which one's do I delete first? Here I take a bit of advice from photographer James Popsys and ask myself: "is the photo in focus?" and "is it interesting". If the answer is no to either question then I delete it. The "maybe" photos get a little more consideration before final judgment (that sounded really dark).
So why did I keep this particular image? Sure, it's in focus and at least mildly interesting. Originally it would have been a "maybe" but somehow it has endured the last year on my hard drive, but why? For one, I think the colors are interesting, it's geometrically appealing in that the lines keep my eyes moving through the image and it has some decent layering, but that isn't necessarily a recipe for a great or even decent photo. I think it feels clean and simple, like a bad copy of an Edward Hopper painting - "Office in a Small City" comes to mind. The one thing that's missing would be an obvious (human) subject -I think the Chevy Equinox would fulfill this purpose. A modern crossover vehicle isn't very sexy, but it certainly fits the time that the photo was captured.
The more I stare at the photo, the more I see. The spacing of the Pacific Pride gas station cover to the center power pole as well as the little power poles in the back is nice, there's a trash bag in the rusty gutter, a no crossing sign with the hand up, there's a reflection of my car in the window of the big building, the power pole on the right is placed well, the drive up window for the yogurt shop is spaced away from the edge of the frame .... These are just things that I am seeing. It still doesn't answer my original question though. Perhaps I should have just typed: "Edward Hopper, Office in a Small City vibes" and moved on. :) Perhaps this is a good candidate to share on @Zach's Photo Review Submission Space.
How about you, have you taken any photos that you love but fail to see why? Or is there a photo or other piece of art by someone else that you feel this way about?
