A Scene - Not a Subject

[Iguanasan]

Hey, everyone. One of our neighbourhoods was hit with a fire recently ( http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1119647.html ) and I went out this past weekend to get a few shots. The streets with the affected homes were still blocked to local traffic only so the best I could do was a few shots of the woods near the main road.

I didn't have a specific subject per se -- the subject was the scene or fire that had long since gone -- but wanted to capture the bleakness of what I saw. Comments? Critiques? Does this work? If not, why not?

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[joaoandreqff]

Just because you don't have an obvious subject doesn't mean you can't compose your photo with a little more thought, I'm sure you could have framed this in a more interesting way.
You could, for example, had included something in the foreground, like a burned and twisted object. As it is, it just looks like a random snaphopt.

Also, the sky is completely overexposed.

[scorpio_e]

HHHmm does not work for me. It is bleak but it really does not say anything. I would try to go in tighter and get some type of foreground

[kat]

Personnally I have a hard time seeing that it's burnt woods. I think maybe a shot with a tree with fire damage in view would be perfect.

Was there much damage?

[Marko]

I agree with the critiques thus far. Just wanted to add that it's not immediately obvious that this is a "fire" scene. At first glance it just looks like a lot of mud.
Hope that helps
Marko

[Iguanasan]

Points taken. I think I kinda knew that before I posted but I appreciated the comments.

Here's the view from my office during the fire. 8 Homes destroyed, 10 damaged. No one was hurt as far as I know.

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Here's a couple of larger shots of the area where I was able to take a few shots. You still can't really tell that it was a fire unless you know that most of these trees are supposed to be evergreens (ie. lots of green needles!) The sky ended up overblown because I was exposing for the dark burned trees.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_8Q3edxpMqBs/Sgzeo4NgyCI/AAAAAAAAFv0/dwPFRTGFKks/s800/IMG_0631.JPG

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_8Q3edxpMqBs/SgzeydjQxEI/AAAAAAAAFwU/MxAq1QRN2JI/s800/IMG_0626.JPG

[kat]

Really liking that last photo! Beig difference on the size of the post, can really see it now!