I was fascinated by the downward sweep of that rain pipe and the petal-like shape of the water butt it fed. I like the textures of wood, stone, and plants, although I think the background greenery is a bit distracting.
There is no way to step back any further, so I can't use a telephoto. My maximum aperture with this beautiful lens is only F/3.5, so DOF doesn't tail off all that quickly. As this was shot with colour film, I could try playing with the channels before I convert to greyscale. That would duplicate the effect of filters... perhaps adding a bit more contrast between the temple and the background greenery.
Next time I might try an ND filter and a tripod to open up to maximum aperture without getting camera shake, which is beginning to be more of a problem these days. But at F/3.5? It may hardly be worth it... I was already at F/5.6 with this one.
Yes I agree with you about the background, something blander would let the temple stand out more. Maybe try this shot again with a telephoto and a shorter dof.
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