I don't want to be unpleasant, but I keep looking at this picture, trying to find out what is so remarkable about it. The few comments are no so enthusiastic either. Relevant, yes. You can see it's raining...

I think this is a beautiful image ... the soft focus gives it a warmth - there's so much movement, you can really feel that rain ... initially I was dubious about the wall on the right - but I actually think this works quite well now .... love it...

I held off commenting on this image to see if looking at it over a period of time changed how I felt about it and also (to be honest) to view others viewpoints on it and see if their way of seeing it would have any influence. I'm surprised there haven't been more comments but having looked at it repeatedly I can say that I really don't like the black at the right any more now then I did when I first viewed it. BUT I love everything else to the left of that black line! It could be an ad and I really like the selective focus, framing, and "decisive moment" feel. I'm sure it was a concious decision to leave the black in and from an artistic perspective I'm curious about what your own thoughts were/are regarding it?

Hey everyone, thank you for the comments and rating it. I am quite suprised myself that this was featured. About the black stripe, it didn't occur to me as a distraction. It looked good *to me* in print so I thought I left it there. Cheers!

I think I'm in love with this image. The black stripe is slightly distracting, but it isn't a huge problem, it lends an abstract sense of environment to the image. I think what I like most about it is that you've chosen to focus on the foreground as opposed to the man. The little splashes almost lead your eye to him.