Abandoned Gold Mine

[Dianne]

This was a shed at an abandoned Gold mine which supported a small town/ village called Waiuta. It is situated on the West Coast of the South Island NZ. The mine was closed in 1951 after an accident. Up to 800 ozs of gold a month was being produced at the time of closure. All that remains is a few buildings and artifacts of what was once a thriving town with shops, hospital and a local constable.

Dianne

[Stephen]

Re: Abandoned Gold Mine

A scene and no doubt a place with loads of potential. I could imagine getting plenty of good shots round that shed alone. In this picture I feel the chimney dominates it too much though. My eye is drawn to it constantly, and its central position nags at my natural sense of composition. Hopefully you took plenty of other shots from diffeent positions.

[Josh Bear]

Re: Abandoned Gold Mine

That is one heck of a dominant chimney. I love the detail and sharpness of the picture but I think if the Chimney was further towards the right of the picture it may have helped with the balance.

try a crop and see what happens.

Best Regards

Josh

[Archangel]

Re: Abandoned Gold Mine

Dianne,

I personally think that always in everyday life and not in photos only, human eyes are always drawn into something anyway. Same applies to photos most of the times, if not always, where some things dominate others. That is normal and complies with the human nature and with the habit of observing and also is or should be reflected into photos.
The "dominant" thing is that "spicing up" in life and in photos as well and for me it should always be in both.

So I don't mind the size of the chimney as this makes the difference in your photo. Without the chimney the photo would be an ordinary photo of just an old shed and no more than that.

Though, the chimney as being the main theme and the most dominant one and which is not bad at all to have something dominant in a photo, is exactly in the center thus making most of the viewers to observe much the chimney and less the rest of the objects.

I think, if you had placed the chimney on the right of the photo, things would look more balanced as the dominant thing would loose a little because of its position and the part of the attention lost from the chimney by its position would add to the rest of the ordinary surrounded objects, thus balancing the photo better.

Let's say, that you, as a photographer having a dominant object in your photo, need to trick the viewers as you may conclude prior of the photo taken that your viewers might pay too much attention to the dominant object and slightly ignore the rest. So you trick your viewers by using a different way of arranging objects in your frame.

No comments for the rest (sharpness, tones, colors, hues and details) as I find them to be mostly accurate and in the right dose.


George

[Tom]

Re: Abandoned Gold Mine

I think the chimney is pure class. Your photograph records the lack of proportions between flue and shack perfectly. The rendering of the rust on the stack is fantastic.
Standing back a little and swinging the camera a little to the left might help balance somewhat but I feel that there is an inherent imbalance that will always be there.