Covent Garden Buskersby
floydComment: This is a very cool shot. DOF is very good for this set up. In fact it reminds me how I need to get a camera where I have more control over that aspect. The bacground is just enough out of focus to keep your eye on the subjects.
I also love that there is enough detail to keep your eye without being 'noisy' in a compositional sense. The lines are very good at helping to direct the eye also. I find that I move around this picture but keep coming back to the same place. The fiddle players instrument points at the instrument of the seated individual. The seated player's left leg points at the fiddle players bow. This brings you back to the fiddle players face which is pointing at the seated players face. Then my eye goes down the seated players arm around to his hand and back to the fiddle which brings me again to the fiddle players face! I LOVE the implied interaction between the two subjects because of the eye contact that you can't really see but know is there!!!
Compositionaly I first thought of croping farther to the left to bring in the case where presumably people are throwing in money. Then I realized that with the background and setting you really didn't need to see that element.
Normally I will harp about taking away color. I LOVE color. However with this shot you get much more feeling (warm fuzzy...) with the use of the sepia toning (which in this instance does not 'age' the picture so much as it sometimes can!)
I personally might have sharpened up the subjects a touch, but I am not sure this would have improved the shot or not.
If voting (without a theme to change the vote) I would give this at LEAST an 8 probably a 9!
Keep up the good work, hope I didn't ramble on too long...
TC