First full day of Spring + record breaking temperatures for the past few days (+26 degrees Celcius today!!!) means an official goodbye to winter and snow. Here's a photo taken just a few weeks ago when the branches were covered in ice after an overnight freezing rain episode. The thin-cloud veiled backlit sun provided beautiful illumination to the scene, which caught my eye as soon as I saw it.
Canon 7D + 18-55mm lens @27mm, aperture priority, evaluative metering, 1/1600s., f/13, ISO 800, +0.7 EC. Full frame, deepened the blacks via "Selective Color", tamed the blown sun via burn and clone tools (had to keep it blown in order to avoid majorly underexposing the rest of the scene).
Beautiful and ethereal scene. I like the crystal look on the snow/ice in the foreground and the way the hint of clouds angle diagonally inwards, even though it is faint. Only nit for me is that the toning down of the sun has given a slight yellow cast over that part of the sky which doesn't look as attractive as the tones of the rest of the image. It feels as if the image should look cool.
On the color tone, to me a matter of personal choice. I like it as presented - great composition as the location of the camera is well chosen to allow the tree placement to act as a leading line in the image. I like the FG tree on right standing as the loner from the BG line. Going for a colder tone will enhance the sense to winter. All depends upon how you feel when looking at the image - warm or cold.