My flipped and cropped edit
The Siegfried Hansen edit
Is it right to flip or are you a flop? In camera only or do you crop? I'm a poet and I didn't ....anyway to what level of editing and size adjustment of your image is OK? For some it is the proportions you framed in camera - anything else is cheating, a lowering of the bar for your abilities of composition and framing. To be honest I was erring on this purism of the image until I attended Matt Stuart's street photography workshop where he casually suggested flipping the image to twist with the viewers brain. He was right - it did make more sense to flip it another way round. I later entered it in to a Flickr Street Photographers challenge group and received some great feedback. Then master craftsman and author of new street photography book Hold the Line, Siegfried Hansen, decided to present another take on it. In my edit keeping the 'Look' road sign was critical to making it work, but with dispassionate eyes Siegfried was able to tighten it up to be a more appealing image. Sometimes it is possible to get so fixed in our ideas it stops us exploring other ways of creating a better picture. Photographers are regularly told to kill your babies and be prepared to discard your personal favourites. I'd add - don't for get to flip and crop them first!
