Another holiday snap

The light isn't very conducive to a great shot here, but I also think the composition is a little lacking. Great - composition is quite hard to comment on! Anyway here goes.

If you were to sketch this scene, would you place the house in that position, directly above the gate? Would you not be tempted to use the diagonal of the gate more positively, and line the house up with that, perhaps?

If you drew a vertical line down the middle of the picture, nearly all the elements would be on the right hand side. There is little on the left hand side to catch the eye. Ideally your comp should (IMHO) have either a strong focal point, or multiple focal points which allow the eye to drift naturally around the picture.

There are other lead ins that could have been considered here. As well as the gate, a lower viewpoint could have allowed you to use the shadow of the gate instead (moving the gate until if you've got the shadow where you want it. Another with a low viewpoint would be step into the field and use the furrows

Composition wise, using a gate to lead the eye in to the scene is a good idea. For me though there is nothing in particular of interest beyond. I would have been tempted to fit the left hand side fencepost in as the left hand side of the shot is empty. This shot might work better with a dramatic sky and a low viewpoint (thus minimising the amount of empty midground) and making more of a feature of the gate.



Edit: Crossed with Alan's post above.

Nice shot. But I have to agree with other comments that the left side is empty and uninteresting. I would have got down lower and used part of the gate as a frame for the house.