[craig]

I was going to post this under the "people assignment" but thought I would see if anyone had any comments.

Thanks very much

[matthew]

Hi Craig, and welcome to Shuttertalk! It's always good to see another Torontonian who goes by an uncapitalized first name.

I was going to say that the city looks great, and that it was a nice relief from gray and bare Toronto -- and then I looked at where you are from. A teensy bit of internet stalking shows me that this was taken on Front street at Church. (There are only two Harry Young locations listed, and there's no Dominion at Young & St Clair.)

I like the photo, and the moment that you've captured. I do think that there's a little too much in it, though. The foreground item that's out of focus, and the colourful something in the window are distracting me, so I'd suggest cropping them out and keeping the box. (I like the box -- I makes me want to know what is/was in it.) I offer the same advice for the top of the image. The little sliver of sky and half of the stop light detract from the vignette of the woman in the window. I'd take the top down to cut the Second Cup sign in half, leaving just the generic coffee-cup logo and no green space above the bar that holds it to the building.

I might further experiment by cropping from the left of the photo as well, to remove the sidewalk clutter and the bright bit of her arm as well. (leave her ponytail intact.) This is a little touchy; I'm comfortable with close crops and think that the reflection provides plenty of atmosphere and context for the photograph, as well as a more pleasing street scene. But, that's just me -- it's a stylistic choice and it may not work in practice.

Thanks for posting it -- and you can add it to the 'people' assignment, too.

[shuttertalk]

Hey craig and welcome to ST!

I must say that your photo has an interesting use of reflections - my eye naturally goes to the "real" girl, then pans into the reflection to find out more about the surroundings. She's also staring intently at something which piques my interest too.

[craig]

Thank you for your comments and great eye on spying the Dominion sign!

The photos I like to take are usually "street" or spur of the moment, trying to capture what is happening, but too often end up with a lot of extra distractions in the shot. I think I need to learn to relax a bit a try focus my attention to the "subject".

Thaks again for having a look.