Ft Worth Cowtown Cowboy

I was taking a continuing education class in photography. The instructor gave us an assignment to go out and find someone we didn't know and get a picture that told the viewer a story about the person...ask them questions and get them to let you take their photo. This gentleman was very accommodating. During the week, he worked in an office for the City of Ft Worth, but on weekends, he participated in the western activities in Cowtown...herding longhorns and snapping his whip for the folks in the crowd.

I must have done OK with assignment because the instructor called it a "Home Run"!

It sure is.

Nice job! I would change somethign though. Next time, arrange things to where the photo is cropped better. When you crop a shot you need to leave more room in the direction of the way they are looking instead of behind them. Looks chopped off and as if they are against a wall, which they were in a way. make them move to a better pose!

You did indeed capture a superb portrait. It really shows the person's character, the light is just right and the focus and exposures too.
I hope you don't mind if I took the liberty of doing just a little bit of post processing to show you how it could be improved (in my opinion). Since your profile show that editing it OK, I cropped it be cause in your original version, my eyes could not stay on the cowboy. They were drawn to the saddle that really was distracting. So I cropped it to a square format, removed some yellow and red and burned his shirt to keep the eyes on his face a little more.

I have to agree with the instructor. There's a lot of character in that guy, and a well shot photo to boot.

Don't mind at all. I'd done the same cropping myself. But for the assignment, we weren't supposed to do any cropping of our photos. I just posted what I captured. I believe I've gotten better at composing my shots since that class.