Mechanical Reaper

[ScottieT812]

I took this in rural Kentucky. This reaper was sitting in front of a house along a country road and caught my eye. Taken in color, converted to B&W in Picasa, and I filtered out the reds to get a darker sky and lighten up the grassy areas to give more contrast with the reaper. I also used a polarizing filter to darken the sky.

Camera: Nikon D60
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 32 mm
ISO Speed: 200

What do you think? How could I bump this up to the next level?

[freezeframe03]

That's a menacing-looking arm. I like the way it reaches across from lower left to upper right. I like the detail showing that that machine as attacked those grasses more than once. The background trees on the right are a bit distracting to me as well as the partial shadow in the lower right corner and the jet streams in the sky.

[tvoelcker]

Interesting subject and the B&W conversion worked nicely.
I too like the way it crosses the frame but it seems a bit too close and kind of right up in the viewers face. Although that might have been the look you was going for.
I think perhaps backing off a bit and including the rest of the top right part of the reaper would have worked well since it tends to lean out of the frame.
I would also either include all or none of the shadow since just a small glimpse of it tends to be a bit distracting.
All said this is a nice shot and congrats on seeing a unique subject to photograph.