Maybe it's because the horizon line is just slightly askew. Also I'm not terribly crazy about the internal lens reflections, but acutally I'm surprised that they weren't a lot worse. Had a lot of fun snapping it anyway...
And if I ever do get around printing it big, I'm sure glad I shot it at ISO-100.
A close inspection of this shot shows the horizon off a bit, but more important is the sun is centered, and (fortunately) the right side has few 'features' that add to the shot. It has the dark tree line, while the other side has a nicely warmed tree line. In the foreground the left side has the nice colour on the waves, while there is little on the right. Conclusion: Good candidate for a crop off the right side. I'd experiment with a dramatic, tall, narrow crop as well as a simple crop off the right. Nice capture.
I'm kind on Jim's side here. The horizon is off, an easy fix. The city lights on the right take away from the natural splendor of the rest of the shot. I think the key to this one is simplicity. Just playing around with the browser scroll bar I found some nice crops about mid-water. Crop the top off to mid-water, you then have an orange shaft reflecting and the lone heron. Then of course the lens flare that Chad mentioned. Simplicity is beauty.
Here we come to a very simple situation, it's personal, what we like & how we like it.
Chad would remove the lens flare - - doesn't bother me in this small view. Larger I may well have a fit over it.
Jim, Tim & ausmr - - all comment on the slightly off horizon line and all suggest a closer crop to eliminate what they feel are distracting elements.
I'm not disagreeing with any of this - - it's personal preference. What I would do is play with all these suggestions in you pp'ing program & see what you come up with. They're all excellent suggestions - - play with it & see where you get the shot you love. You have a great shot here... What I would have done is probably framed it differently from the beginning - but I do love the "lonely fisher motif"
Sometimes all it takes is cropping something differently.
You have a wonderful serene shot here - - you just have to find the right "crop" to make you happy
If you want to give a sense of quitness and peacefulness this is the way I see this picture: more soft tones and detail, the Egret not so close to the bottom frame, the sun off center to the right.
Socrate
A few thoughts, I really like Jim's idea to crop off the right side. This then gives a nice feel to the space left where the egret is looking. Since our minds see the egret as white and it isn't here, it is possible to darken the picture even more and let the egret perhaps be more of silouhette image.
