Dan, You are on the right track here. The more interesting part of the image are the colors in the BG and the gray wall-of-trees acting as the BG upon which to set off those sunlight colors. Thr FG hurts the image as it is OOF. IF it was in focus, it might have added a nice layering affect with the water (though I don't much like the birds - looks like Coots - in the water). I would crop to above the water and birds. Ideally, it would have been best to tilt the camera up and gotten more of the tree behind the colorful bushes.
Thanks for the feedback, Robert and Andrew, it has been so long since I have taken a Landscape photo,
It was nice to take one I thought was worth posting.
Here is a repost.
Hey Dan, great work on the repost...the pano look really works well with the long line of colorful shrubbery...they look like some kind of willow or perhaps dogwood?
The repost works very well. Simplicity is the key in images like this and I know full well how tempting it is to try and frame it "traditionally" with something in the FG.