Street Photography Weekly Assignment #7: “Backyard” Winners

Jonathan Carvajal

The winner of last week’s challenge: “Emotion“, in which the winner Michael Meinhardt chose this week’s theme: “Backyard“.

I took a look at the entries on my Facebook fan page, and congratulations to Jonathan Caravajal for winning this week’s assignment!

The reason I really like Jonathan’s image is for several reasons:

1) He has great depth in the shot.Your eyes start from the extreme foreground, are lead through the middle of the frame (which have interesting concrete columns surrounding the sides), go further and you see the man digging something up, and finally to the man in the background.

2) Having subjects white against a back background. This shot works very well in color, because of the great separation it gives in the photo. Not only that, but the subjects (being a lighter color against a dark background) pop out well and are easily viewable by the viewer. Also I like the subjects’ body gestures, such as the man hunched over, working, and the other man in the background standing straight, arms crossed, and watching (wonder who is in charge?)

3. Solid composition and balance. I like that there is a nice play of different shapes in this photograph, including those stone pillars (which run vertical), the triangles in the photo (the hill is slanted diagonally), as well as a nice separation of colors (black in foreground, brown in mid-ground, and green in background).

Glenn Anton

Our runner-up is Glenn Anton. When I first looked at the shot, it instantly reminded me of shots by Andre Kertesz photographed from his window in the winter. There is a great mood in the photograph of coldness yet beauty – which is highlighted by the snow falling down. I also like the cross which goes straight through the photograph, and the nice touch of the man in the background in the left side of the frame walking out (with his legs spread in a “V” formation).

The reason I preferred Jonathan’s photo over Glenn’s is that I felt that Jonathan’s shot had more depth, in terms of having your eyes lead through the scene. Although Glenn’s shot has a sense of depth as well (fences in the foreground, man in the midground, and houses in the background) – the sense of depth feels more compressed and doesn’t take your eyes far enough.

But of course this is just my opinion! Let us know what you think of the winning images and give Jonathan and Glenn a shout-out in the comments below! Make sure to “Like” my Facebook fan page and stay tuned for next week’s weekly assignment!