Water Fall

Taken on a backpacking trip on the Foothills Trail at the NC/SC border. I was hoping to hike up the Thompson River to some spectacular waterfalls, but was alone on this trip and would’ve needed climbing gear, or at least a buddy with the desire to get very wet. Anyway, my disappointment waned when I saw this beautiful reflection of fall color in the shade of a mountain laurel bush. This ended up being the best shot of my trip.

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Fabulous image! Well done. I love it. My only nit, and it’s in the totally subjective category, would be to crop the empty space at the top and darken the upper right corner slightly to keep the eye from wandering to that corner. Like so:

Jim,

Indeed a wonderful image and great entry to the WC! My first thought before I saw/read Tony’s comments was that the blue in the LRC was a bit distracting and was going to suggest cropping - but then again I don’t want to lose the blue; maybe it’s just the heavy branch and dark leaves in the corner… But then I saw Tony’s crop and thought, that’s the ticket! Amazing how taking off a little off the top saved the bottom - at least for me anyway.

Great contrast and vibrant colors. Well seen, captured and presented.

Lon

Jim, the colors and the contrast with the very dark leaves and branches, make a dramatic impression. Yes, the lack of darkness along the top is a notable change. Tony’s crop suggestion works well. You might also try burning-in the darker tones in that area at the top to create more similarity in contrast throughout the image. This one would be fun in any orientation.

@Tony_Siciliano…thanks for your observation. I totally agree that the crop makes a difference in getting a bit lost at the top of the image. @Lon_Overacker and @Mark_Seaver thanks for stopping by and commenting. I’m concerned about oversaturation in the majority of my images. I think I’m concerned about that here as well. Something I’m struggling to reduce within my images. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Regardless, thanks for your comments!

@Jim_McGovern, if you’re using Adobe software, it automatically adds saturation especially when you darken all or part of an image. I see that very strongly in a lot of my reflection abstracts because they start out with a very limited range of luminosity and gain dramatically in saturation as I expand the histogram. In some abstracts, I think the extra saturation is fine, but in others and in standard landscapes, etc., I often reduce the saturation in the yellows and greens to avoid what I call an “oversaturated glow”.