Ideas Needed - This is not quite right.

You know this thread makes me think about all the times we causally tear apart a famous photo - making an image that works and matches our mind's eye is more difficult sometimes than one would imagine.
 
I'd suggest a wider lens if you have one, show how alone the gate is in this big, empty expanse of barren land. Closer with a wider lens, if possible.

Closer in and a lower-angle so the sky fills the top 2/3, perhaps?

I kind of disagree with the wider closer opinion. I want to see the gate in relation to the farmhouse with no fence. To me what is interesting is that the gate still stands even though the fence is long gone. That it still stands alone as the portal to the farmhouse. There's a lot of potential for arousing emotions in that little storyline. It could get cliche, but that's the challenge. There's opportunity for showing humor and pathos and sentimentality. I think color would work better and maybe try for low directional sunset or sunrise-colored light towards the gate and the farmhouse.

good idea for a thread.



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I think all three ideas--different perspectives--have merit. I would experiment with them. It did occur to me, in first viewing the gate, that a lower angle, against the sky, would be more dramatic. So I would especially try out Sparrow's idea.
 
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I'd like to know more about the "room" on the side of the barn. Is it a corn crib? Looks like one from the construction.

I agree with the others about the gate. I might go color and late sun for the warmth of the color to add to the rotten wood of the gate.
 
the sky above the horizon is a big problem. i'd look for a backdrop that doesn't pull the eye away from the gate. or shoot from an even lower angle so the whole gate has sky behind it.
 
Closer, wider, put the verticals of the gate-planks as vertical in the shot. Make the chain and latch more prominent.

When that's tried, then you can do the easy stuff like arrange world peace or something.

EDIT: Actually, can you use a longer lens and put the remains of the house behind the gate, from the other direction in other words. It would make it clear what these bits of wood are/were, and their relation to the de-focussed background might trigger some thoughts in viewers of the picture.
 
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Am I the only one here who would get inside the barn and shoot the gate from there? I would get it busy - frame in to the frame sort of thing. Long exposure as possible to bring the ghosts out :)
Regards,
Boris
 
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