Beautiful image Gary! Probably one of my favorite images that I've seen from you. I'm not a landscape expert, but I keep wanting to crop a little off the right. I'm interested in what the experts have to say.
I think you nailed the exposure and captured the unique mood of this scene. The position of the sun relative to the
trees feels just right to me.
My sense of balance wants to take a little off the right, just inside your name as shown below, but that's a purely
personal sense. I would take out the two lens flares (though some prefer them in shots like this) and sharpen the tree a bit
more. A couple of dust bunnies at the top, just left of center, that should go.
These are just nits. Big congrats on an outstanding image.
Hey Gary,
Let's go over the specs first.....given the fact it is early morning.....sunny 16 rule wouldn't apply....so even there appears you are underexposed by a 1/3......but my bet is that it's closer to 1&1/3. Rarely do you get away with breaking the rules.....so the good news is I think it works here....but for my tastes maybe a hair more PP tweaking. Compositionally I like the original post as the darkness made a very eeirie frame. I like David's tweaks and it appears his clouds(reflection and sky) are a hair lighter too....but I didn't put them side by side.....I would go even slightly lighter with them. I think the central tree placement works as does the sun position relative to it and I don't think you could ask for a better fit on the clouds. Very well composed.... so all the recommendations are minor tweaks.