I had some free moments whilst in York shopping and I focussed in on the Lucky Days cafe which has an eye catching bright yellow exterior. The afternoon was getting on but as it was sunny there were some deep shadows.
I didn’t really have a plan, apart from capturing the bright yellow and possibly getting some silouettes of the people passing the front of it. There were some tables and chairs on the pavement outside with waiting staff moving in and out.
When I got home and took a look at them I wasn’t that thrilled but a couple of days later I decided to do some major cropping and see if something might emerge. I also changed the angle to add some dynamic to them and they’re better for it.
So here’s an original without any editing:
and here’s the cropped in version with some other edits:
A couple of others where I similarly cropped:
I like the first one with the table and chair in the shadow the most (and posted that on Instagram) but the lesson is as usual – to get in closer. But also to not dismiss immediately images I think are poor. Within them, with a bit of cropping, there might be something worth saving. Of course cropping is a bit of a last resort and focus is sometimes lost but it’s all part of the learning process – developing compositional skills especially.