Almost forgot that granite is a stone!by
TammsterComment by Mark-A: Greetings from the Critique Club :)
Composition:
I guess with this subject so closely framed there's not much that can be said about the composition as such, some areas in the shot do seem to have a bit more interest than others though so maybe a different crop would have worked slightly better.
Camera Work:
The focus seems a little soft I suspect this may have been handheld and I wonder if that 8 shutter speed was actually 1/8, pushing the ISO would have enabled a faster shutter which would have resulted in an overall sharper image I feel.
Post-Processing:
Unfortunately you haven't listed your processing steps so I cannot see what was done to the shot, I've taken the image into PS and found that with a boost to Hue / Sat and some contrast tweaks the colour are quite delightful and the browns glow almost golden like, I also added some sharpening and this helped with the focus issue considerably - it might be worth going over this image again and reprocessing it to see what improvements you can make.
My Opinion:
I think your subject matter was always likely to result in a low score unfortunately, even with perfect lighting and focus I think your options were fairly limited. But as you say in your notes you refound your "sight" on something not appreciated as much as it once was.
Overall a applaud your decision to go with a shot that had meaning to you and also the fact that you did so pretty much knowing it would result in a lower score, keep on shooting!
Good luck in future challenges!
Mark
Photographer found comment helpful.
