City pond

[Rene Quenneville]

I took this picture in a city park while on vacation. It was a drizzly morning. I like the colors and the composition has something that I am not sure about. Please give me your feedback. Some dirt was removed from the water surface.
ISO 400, 200mm, f/7.1, 1/160 s

[Julie Kenward]

This is beautiful Rene! I think you got such beautiful color from the water and lily pads because you had a nice overcast sky. I know I tried photographing these without a polarizer on sunny days and it was not good!

My one suggestion would be to clone out the yellow lily pad on the side. My eye tends to want to go straight back on those ever-smaller pads but the yellow one hijacks my attention halfway back. I think your composition would be even stronger without it.

Lovely flower, too - can't tell if it is a bit less sharp in the center?

It really is an all around delightful image.

[Stuart Frohm]

Please allow me to add my admiration!

If you don't want to clone out the yellow pad, you might consider making it green.

All best,
Stu

This is beautiful Rene! I think you got such beautiful color from the water and lily pads because you had a nice overcast sky. I know I tried photographing these without a polarizer on sunny days and it was not good!

My one suggestion would be to clone out the yellow lily pad on the side. My eye tends to want to go straight back on those ever-smaller pads but the yellow one hijacks my attention halfway back. I think your composition would be even stronger without it.

Lovely flower, too - can't tell if it is a bit less sharp in the center?

It really is an all around delightful image.

[Ed Vatza]

Seems like so long ago already that we had water lilies in the pond. :(

This is a very nice image. I love the color and placement of the flower in the frame. And the raindrops add such a nice feel to the image. The yellowed leaf is a bit of a distraction as it does tend to pull the eye from the lovely flower to the other side of the frame. Still very nicely done.

[Chris Starbuck]

Rene,
I agree with the others regarding the great colors, and good basic composition here - especially the diagonal line of smaller pads, and of course the rain drops are a wonderful plus. In general, shapes that just touch (or almost touch) the edge of the frame, as the pads at upper left and upper right, tend to make the viewer uncomfortable. It's better to either have some space between the shape and frame edge, or cut into the shape significantly. Also little bits of things intruding at the edges, especially if they have high contrast in tone or color, are distracting. So I think just a small crop from top and right to eliminate the stems at upper left and the partial pads on the right, would make your nice composition even stronger.

[Rene Quenneville]

Thank you all for the very constructive comments. I was not sure of the impact of the 3 leaves on the overall composition.
Here is a repost with the new proposed crop. Does it requires to also remove some at the botom?
TX again.

[Julie Kenward]

In my opinion, yes. I say that because now the flower is a little high and would bring a better balance if a bit lower. If you cut right above where the lily pad on the left is "slit" that should be about right. Rene, while you're at it, you might darken the one yellow spot in the slit of the lily pad next to the flower. That spot keeps stopping my eye from progressing across the image to the back pad.

Really nice job on this...it's going to be gorgeous when you're done!

[Kaushik Balakumar]

Beautiful image Rene. Chris Starbuck pretty much summed up what I wished to say too.
Liked the re-post.