Looking for a little constructive criticism. The linked shot has been pretty well received, but there are a couple of things that bug me about it and I'm curious if they are as much an issue as I perceive them to be.
In terms of distracting me from the subject of the image, I wouldn't have noticed either the tree or the fence if you hadn't pointed them out. The houses are much more distracting...if it were my shot, I'd probably have lowered the exposure a bit during post-processing to make the houses disappear a bit more into the shadows. With a sunset shot you can get away with a lot of silhouetting.
Great shot though...Screeners Choice is a big compliment
I had planned on doing something about the houses, but after making other adjustments it slipped my mind. Now that it's been pointed out, I see I'll have to work on that. It's certainly doable.
I somewhat agree with the others on the house but honestly it wasn't a big detractor for me. I would have moved the train a bit lower in the photo so the horizon line isn't so much in the center of the image. That would have kept more of the tree visible and captured more of the nice sky. I don't think that is mandatory however and is determined more by individual taste and composition.
Good to hear from you. You pretty much nailed my "concern". I composed the shot too low to crop the image so the horizon and tree were lower. Bugs me, so I was just curious what other's felt.