[summatusmentis]

I liked this image a lot, particularly the contrast of orange and yellow against white. I also really like the tape following the curve of the snow.

I might have upped the saturation/vibrance too much in PP, but I like it where it is.

Please be harsh, trying to learn.

[GoremanX]

ok, but you asked for it

The scene would've made a great picture for exactly the reasons you mentioned. The high saturation and contrast would've worked well with the overall bleak look of winter to set it off.

The only problem is, your angle is dreadfully boring. It looks like you walked up to it, pointed your camera down at it, and snapped a picture. All it says to me is: "Guy standing there and taking picture of a ribbon". I think you could've given us either a lower or higher perspective and gotten a much more interesting view. Getting closer would've helped a lot too. Trying to capture different views or interesting detail yields better results than taking a picture of a scene with stuff in it.

Also, the top edge of the picture is especially ugly. Cropping it out would be a good start.

[summatusmentis]

It looks like you walked up to it, pointed your camera down at it, and snapped a picture. All it says to me is: "Guy standing there and taking picture of a ribbon".

Yeah, that sounds about right :-P I'm still having difficulty melding all of the "techniques" together. If I remember to play with angle, I forget about rule of thirds. If I remember rule of thirds, angles tend to be thrown out the window. I appreciate the input. I might go reshoot and see what I can do about angle and things.

[zombieCat]

While you're reshooting, I would try to get just the snow bank with the sawhorses and the tape. The melting parking lot detracts from it. Sometimes you can't get an angle to get just what you want, even with a closeup. I had this very problem today--a great sculpture with horrific background from every angle, and filling the whole frame with just part of the sculpture didn't work. You may be able to get a good anlge/crop on this one though. I'd give it a try. Sometimes it just doesn't work though.