Merchant Stairs

This is an interesting location with lots of textures and tones to work with.  One of the problems you may have experienced is very high scene contrast because of the time of day.  The major problem with the image is that there are too many highlights- all over the place and it it is hard to find the motif of the image- the main subject.  I had to look real hard to define the image. 

This problem is sometimes caused by light filtering through the trees.  Midday sunlight is oftentimes difficult to control and because it is comming from directly above the area you are photographing, it lacks the direction of light that brings out textures and dimensionality. Sometimes shootin earlier or later in the day of workin on a day when it is cloudy or mildly overcast bring out more detail and texture and allows you to frame you main subject bu using you compositional skills.

I hope this helps.  Ed Shapiro

Sidney,

I think that you have a good location here and some good ideas for working with it.  The first problem that I have with the image is that I have never had sucess shooting DOWN steps when the steps are a primary (or the primary) element of the image.  In most cases, shooting down like this will "flatten" the image visually and you lose perspective of what you are looking at.  On first glance, this appears to be a bridge, not stairs.  Looking at the river, trees and reflections beyond make me think that there is more image here than you have captured.  You are sort of stuck in a middle place.  You can't bring out the texture of the wood used here, but you can't see it in the larger setting either . . .

Keep working and keep posting!

Ed