Countryside

[LaFoto]

I'm curious to hear what works and what doesn't. If there's anything in her that "works" at all? Maybe there isn't?

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2622/4171749073_d44b4be52a_o.jpg

I happened to find myself somewhat higher than the ground (which is something rare in my region!) and was actually supposed to photograph the building site of a biogas gas plant under construction, when I turned and got intrigued by the lines and angles of the countryside behind me.

I took this photo on 30-Oct-2009 at 11:29h, 1/400sec at f5.6, ISO 100 with the 70-300mm lens.

[Hertz van Rental]

This image has - potentially - a lot going for it.
The geometrics of the ploughing and planting (the bits that have been ploughed, the planting of the new growth, the tree-line, the stubble...) produce powerful lines and large areas of colour. And being Autumn (Fall to the Colonials) the colours are all greens, yellows and browns.
Although the major diagonal (the area of ploughed soil in the foreground) is moving right to left - opposite to the visual/compositional convention - it is balanced by the area of stubble mid-frame left and the tree coming into frame from the right. The net result is an almost circular visual flow around the green area which works nicely.
However...
The bush upper left edge ruins it, acting like a block and interrupting the rhythm of the image. And it is aided and abetted by the large green shed off-centre top right.
My first suggestion would be to get some heavy earth-moving equipment...
But a more practical - and effective - suggestion is to crop a strip off down the left side to remove the bush and crop about half the sky from the top. This will remove one problem, reduce the other problem and focus attention back on to the geometrics, which is what I presume was your original intention.
In future remember to examine all areas of the frame when composing. People have a habit of only looking at the centre of the viewfinder (after all, that's where the subject is, isn't it?) and forget that things are going on elsewhere in frame that can ruin the image. ;)

[LaFoto]

Dang! I could have asked!

http://www.fastpictures.com/images/AnniRocS/earthmovingequipment.jpg

They have it all there!

Thank you, Hertz, for the analysis. Thrilling to be giving such detailed analysis for once. That little bush ... honestly, it would never have struck me as "ruining", but maybe you are right. I usually do also watch the edges of my frame (else guess where the horizon line would have been...), but I did not watch for that bush.

So do you mean for me to have them tear down that large skale pig sty, too?

[Hertz van Rental]

The bush acts as a visual block stopping the flow of the eye around the image and as it is right at the end of the strong foreground diagonal it becomes the focal point.
Try the crop and see for yourself.
And if you could get someone to tear down that shed, plant trees, and do the same ploughing and planting for next Autumn...