I got it from the name plate on the front of the building …royal pump room… the wonders of being able to zoom in.
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One doesn’t see many still life shots here, particularly using lighting. It’s not easy at all and requires a very good eye. Nice attempt, but keep trying.
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Hi, thanks for the response. Definitely up for some critique of my shots to help me improve, any pointers more than welcome.
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Bit tricky criticising photos here. Tried before, as I thought people would find it useful, but kind of met with “I prefer it this way”, “I like the litter everywhere, as that’s how it was” or just general childish upsettingness from certain people who like to think best. As it is, as you have asked, you sound like me, who likes to be criticised, so I can hopefully improve what I’m doing. No other way really.
These are some very brief pointers;
If the flowers had a background and were laid down with shadows etc, the diagonal angle of them would be fine. As it’s black, the angle just looks wrong.
The cropping and format is all wrong. It looks unbalanced.
There’s no particular focal point. Neither the ring, flowers or buds take any central stage. This could be solved by localised lighting and/or depth of field.
The ring definitely needs to be pin sharp.
The lighting is not really saying anything about the composition. It’s neither soft, hard, directional, high/low key or making your eye go to any particular point. It’s just ‘lit’.
As I say, very brief points that if someone gave to me, I’d look and see how another photo could be made. You have tried what I consider the hardest part of photography. Everything is in your control here and it’s not easy.
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From the Great Central Railway, 5th Nov’23.
Being ‘on duty’ does help in getting better angles than most people manage…!
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Thanks for taking the time to reply, I really do appreciate it and value the critique as my photography needs to be on point and always improving.
I was wondering if the ring was in focus or not, I know it sounds funny but I found it really difficult to tell as if you zoom in on the ring and pixel peek, at some points it becomes ‘out of focus’ just because you start to see the pixels. but looking again, it is not pin sharp (I am learning that macro photos of diamonds relying on autofocus is not easy)
Composition wise, I think I need to slow myself down and think what I am doing more. I definitely feel I rush through images too much and need to think more along the lines of the composition of each shot, lighting and what I am trying to achieve, rather than just wanting to get the image down.
Here is another shot from the same sequence, again is that ring sharp?!
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Easy to do and I’m the same. When it comes to still life and you have a bunch of flowers that you want to produce something, but not sure until you start, it’s not easy at all. When you see a beautiful still life image, the photographer has worked hard and it hasn’t just luckily appeared. Great to see your photo and I was pleased to see one here. Don’t take my comments as negative, they’re constructive.
Regarding the sharpness, good question. It still doesn’t look quite crisp, but the facets look in focus. It does look like it might be on the limit of what can be achieved with your lens and I think when you’re zooming in and having difficulty focusing, you’re seeing these limits. Stopping down the aperture, going in closer, off-centre and photographing subjects with crisp edges all push the lens to its limits.
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Thanks again for the reply, and dont worry it’s definitely taken as constructive Criticism. Will get trying this type of shot and honing the skills and will try the technique for the focusing. Many Thanks again.
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You “get” it 
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Rather than start a new thread, I thought the story of this iconic photograph would be best placed here.
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Interesting - there are still people in Mere and thereabouts who sort of look like that ! The other pictures are sort of interesting too. ‘King John Cottage’ looks like it might be what is now the ‘King John Inn’ in Tollard Royal.
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