I think i like this subject and composition most of all from this series. I would probably have liked the fat part of the leaf spring to be more in focus, just my aesthetic, perhaps, but the frame or pan plus wheel at the bottom right to my eye. Not sure it could be done any better. Images done well, like this, are just so cool see - have a lot of charm.
Michael, thank you. On this, and the tread of the dozer, I was foregrounding the moss as the symbol of neglect, decay. The stack of leaves having hard focus *would* have been better. I've not experimented to see if I could have enough dof at that close range to have had both in hard focus. The moss quickly loses clarity & is hard to recognize when it goes soft, so I've worked on keeping it sharp. While not my fav composition from the series, I'm always drawn to the sharpness, without which I get no texture.
I think that "dof preview" on a 35mm SLR is rather difficult to judge to be nearly useless due to the viewfinder brightness and just plain size. I agree that focusing on the moss was the right decision, and the rest falls where it rests. Do you recall what f/stop you took this at, it is good info for the exposure note. I like to see what folks used for their particular print when it matters; not for the whole exposure which is meaningless, but for instance in the case of this photo what the f/stop was for that lens and format for dof critical exposures, or for a waterfall what the shutter speed was because that has such a huge impression on the resulting image. When i was using a fully automatic 35mm camera, i almost always had to operate it in shutter priority or aperture priority depending on what was important to me. I almost never used either of manual or AE.
Lovely textural shot here too. The shallow DOF is not a real problem as I like the focus on the moss. Maybe if the shackle in the foreground was sharp too that would help, and a slight change in position may help there.
I like how you can sort of read the number stamped on the frame. Moss sure looks funny in B&W. Hopefully these old cars are on to find a new life. I see one was on a trailer and hopefully to a excited new owner.