I really like the soft, comforting tones of the orange sky and blue water. To me the water make the image seem cold, not bone chilling, but there seems to be a chill in the air. The normally soothing blue and orange may set the stage but the both black silhouettes of the trees and like a slap in the face, that suddenly jolts me wide awake. In the end I feel a sense of foreboding. The image seems to generate a wide range of emotions that leaves me on the edge of my chair.   Posted: 03/08/2025 15:42:04

Thank you. A picture that evokes feelings (good or bad) is what makes a picture good in my view. Thank you for the compliment.
  Posted: 03/09/2025 09:16:12

I agree with Larry; this is an impactful image. I really like the color palette and your composition with the location of the sun within the frame of the trees with the weight of the tree on the right offset by the sun on the left. There are a couple of sun flare spots I would consider removing but leaving flare in an image is a maker's choice too. It appears there is some tonal differences between the large tree and sky that may be the result of darkening the sky during processing. If you wanted, you could use a really large soft brush to expand the sky mask to reduce that.   Posted: 03/09/2025 12:28:42

Hi Adi. What a stunning silhouette. Jekyll Island has so many great compositional opportunities and you've captured one here. The positioning for the sun and its reflections on the water nicely complement the trees creating a good balance. The rich colors and the sun's brightness are managed well. One suggestion I'd offer is to refine the halo effect around the right tree trunk.   Posted: 03/16/2025 08:26:16

Hi Adi, I liked the silhouette in this picture. I would have removed those two sunflares at the bottom as Michael suggested. It creates a chilling emotion for me. Very nice capture.   Posted: 03/21/2025 00:13:19

Adi - Not sure if you set this shot up in your viewfinder or cropped in post, but this image is framed so effectively. I suspect the sun flares might lower a score in competition but my primary attention is drawn to focus in on the juxtaposition of tree, water and sunrise reflections - which are well balanced. Just above the water surface, I see a bit of whitish/lightish color around the tree trunk - hinting of an edited sky - could that color aberration be touched up?

Your color looks natural and not over saturated. To me, this image softly shouts "serene" ... Nice work!   Posted: 03/21/2025 02:41:06

This is a really stunning image. The color balance of the blues with the sun and the reflected light in the water really make this image. It's funny Larry got a sense of foreboding from the image, I had the opposite reaction and found it rather soothing. From a technical standpoint you should probably get rid of the lens flare and you do have some haloing around the tree, easily fixed by adjusting your mask(s).   Posted: 03/31/2025 02:12:36