Thames footbridge

Willow Herb.

Purple loosestrife.

A very nice telephoto shot and very eye-catching with the unexpected colour on the banks. I'd just have changed the man's shirt to a warm (red, orange, brown or yellow) colour and cropped the picture a bit West and South.

If you changed his shirt, you'd have to change the reflection too.
But no cropping, please. It's nicely balanced as it is.

Yes, on reflection, I would.

That's the problem; the bridge and figure are bang in the middle.

It's not a problem at all (only to your self-imposed rules). The picture is nicely balanced by the lighter foliage in the NW corner complementing the bright foliage in the SE, and the fact that one can trace the path around without actually seeing it..

When a picture is divided in half, the eye is led in two directions. That the eye mustn't be led in more than one direction is YOUR rule, not mine.

No, I don't have rules for photography: I just go by what looks right. It can be uncomfortable if the eye is being led in different directions, but that is not the case here. The line of the path leads us around the picture. I don't see it as in any way being divided in half.

And you don't do things by half.

Don't I? What's that supposed to mean?

As I've said before, the "rules" for photography are guides to precisely that - what, in practice, looks right.

Okay, so you don't need to worry about the rules when the picture LOOKS right.

This picture is alright. It's not brilliant, but it's alright. It doesn't need anything altering.

If I hadn't been so hot and weary (after being up all night), I might have moved around to get a better position or waited for a pedestrian with the right-coloured shirt, but this was just a quick snap on my way home, and it's ALRIGHT.

It IS alright, as I said. It's just a bit too much alleft and albottom.

If any cropping were to be done, it would be from the TOP, not the bottom. (SEE NOTE)
I've often thought your ideas of composition were somewhat skewed.

1. That is better; the bridge and figure are no longer dead-centre. I prefer the trees behind to the out-of-focus shrub, bottom right, but here, compromises are unavoidable.
2. Ditto. But when you get it right, your work is excellent.

Flattery will get you nowhere.

You accuse my tone-mapped pictures of flattery. Yet, when I turn up the contrast, you say they look unnatural. It does get me nowhere.

I agree. But you tell me it's 'art'. And it seems that anything goes with art.
(Except having your subject centre stage.)

How right thou art. The guidance embodied in conventional rules is irrelevant and worthless, and the only rule to which we should adhere is the rule that if the person who took the picture considers it to be alright, and it is the picture that he or she wanted, then it IS alright. Glad we're agreed.

For the picture that YOU want, may I suggest that you stand there yourself in your warm red onesie, and I'll try to crop you west and south.

That would be a bridge too far.

Perhaps, because it doesn't always tally with the pictures' popularity on Flickr. Again and again, (my most recent trips included) after uploading my best pictures, I've then as an afterthought uploaded a couple of others which I'd initially rejected, and these 'also rans' turn out to be the most viewed and favourited.

Trust your critics to be more discerning than your flickrphants.

I am aware of the fact that very few of my pictures are perfect, and of the faults in the others. I am even aware of the faults when I am taking them.

If I uploaded only the perfect ones, my Flickr photostream would be precisely 3 pictures long.

In my judgement of what pictures are good enough to upload, I am influenced by my admirers as well as by my critics. Fortunately I also have some of the former, and some of them are themselves experienced and without question good photographers.

Beautiful image with lovely reflections.

Thank you, Dave, and I hope you're not too upset by having your vision split in half.

As they said in Colonial days, divide and rule..

Really nice shot!

Thank you, Petar. I'm glad someone likes it despite all the things that are wrong with it.