... it's a completely different picture...
True.
The point of posting such a radically different picture is not to prove Russ wrong, but to indicate the range of possible interpretations of the same scene.
There is much to like about Russ' version. The high-key tonality ("the unbearable
lightness of being" comes to mind for some reason), the road, abandonment, departure, fences... And some elements that bother me: main subject placed too central in a rectangular format; the degree of road visibility (I kinda want to see either less or more of it); foreground (too much or too little of it?). In other words, plenty of good elements, but somehow competing with each other, i.e., not completely sure they fall into place in the most optimal way.
I was just two days ago visiting the latest Michael Kenna exhibition in the Edelman Gallery in Chicago. One of the things that caught my eye is how often he resorts to placing the center of interest... centrally. What does not seem to work in a rectangular format, seems to work splendidly in a square (I can see Rob nodding in agreement).
So I took
one good element (of many) in Russ' image and tried to make the most of it by placing it into its natural format: square. The rest of it, tonality, etc. is just my personal idea of abandonment, the very concept of which has a deep psychological impact on me (childhood traumas, I guess).