Hi Robert - Of the two images, I prefer the first as it gives some overall context. However, I think I would have approached the subject differently. I note that the hose from the pump snakes out across the concrete pad. I think I might have gone to the end of the hose, squatted down, and shot along the line of the hose, so that the eye would be taken in and up to the forlorn pump. However, I was not there and that may not have worked.
Actually, having looked again, you might try cropping in on the pump and hose (2nd image might be easier) and setting a 2:1 format. That might isolate and dramatise.
thanks for the hints. I have shot one photograph from another position. Maybe it is more interessting. Unfortunately it is on private ground behind a higher fence, therefor getting nearer is not possible.
Robert - that's more what I had in mind, but lower. However, if you can't get nearer then there's nothing much else that can be done. I wonder, also, if B/W is actually the best here. If your aim was to show decay and "loss", partial desaturation of the colour image might work better - dead and dying greens in the foliage rather than crisp greys. Anyway, just another idea.
when I took the photo it was still green there. I will go there in a few months during wintertime. Luckily it is only twenty minutes away by car and there are working gas stations around