Would appreciate any comments on this one. Taken in the Blackdown Hills near Wellington, Somerset. 50mm Full Frame, 1/60 at f/8.

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Ed

That dark tree packs a lot of punch. My eyes went right there, and the lack of detail is a major distraction. To my taste, it has to go. That being said, there is really nothing else to draw my eyes into the image. It feels like there is a significant amount of foreground missing. The ground on the bottom feels imcomplete. If you were to reshoot, the branch in the upper left is a very effective element. I would suggest moving to the left and including more foreground while eliminating the tree on the right, unless you can get some detail into those overpowering shadows.

Ed, I hate to be critical, but you asked for criticism. What is the focal point of this picture? What is it supposed to convey? The foliage is lovely, but, as Walker Evans once said about a beautiful sunset: "So what?" I can look out my window and see lovely foliage.

One suggestion: You need to get your files down to around 500K before you post them. More than that doesn't add anything to what you can see on a 72 ppi monitor, and loading just takes too long at the viewing end.

Keep shooting. Photography is a learning process for us all.

I like it, to some extent at least, because of the framing by the big black tree. Without the tree, there's nothing much except a bunch of undifferentiated leaves. So it's not great, no big deal. Just sit on it for awhile until you get an idea about changing it, or just leave it as is. I've seen praise here for a lot of B&W's that aren't any better than this.