A postcard from Digley...
Digley Reservoir - Holme, W. Yorkshire '16 - Paul Abbott
Paul,
Allow me to correct you: this is no postcard. Cutting away lower 1/5th to 1/3 of the picture would have made the perfect postcard; pretty and sentimental. You however include the major hook of the beach of sand curving around the lower left quadrant and upsetting the usual prettiness we expect in such scenes.
When I first looked at the picture, I hadn't, as yet, even noticed the text above it, mentioning "postcard". Still, I thought, wouldn't it be a perfect holiday card to send home if the serious hook at the base was removed.
Commercial headshots, like postcards, are not meant to be serious, just pleasant and have no serious undertones. They are both meant to be casual and enjoyable but with no thought-racking motifs built in. A commercial headshot can't show the actor to be opinionated or complex, as it is an accompanying product to be pitched. Likewise a holiday postcard is no more than a pretty flower with which to introduce the greeting on the other side. One is not meant to invest more than one glance at the prettiness and then treasure the written message, however brief: it's the thought that counts.
Here, however, your picture is complex and deserves some attention as the lack of cropping indicates that you might have had more thoughts beyond the merely the usual sentimental and transient nostalgia such postcard prettiness provides.
The pictures makes me pay attention and wonder why you dos as you did and what secret references your brain was making. For me, this composition is unsettling, interesting, handsome more than beautiful and certainly unforgettable and worth my attention.
Thanks for sharing!
Asher