Quiet, almost too quiet....

[Xia_Ke]

Well, I went out hiking the other day, hoping to finally try my hand at some bird photography. This is another of my favorite hiking spots and is usually full of life. Hauled my camera lenses, tripod, etc. for an hour and a half only to find not even a squirrel out and about. Sat around for over an hour and nothing Anyway, here's a shot from the hike that I liked. Was playing around with color levels in Lightroom to get used to it's functions. Do you think I cooked the colors a little too much on this?

[gahspidy]

I know how that is when you set out for a specific type of shots in mind and find that your not going to get those after all. However, the ability to "shift gears" and open the mind to what IS there is part of the game.Looks like you played well here.
I like the scene you captured. The tranquility and serenity coming out of it is quite nice. In this composition, I like the foreground element,the tree branch, but feel it could have worked equally well without it as the beautiful calm of the water and it's surroundings are enough of a subject for me. Nicely framed with the branches coming down from above, although the horizon line could have been stronger away from center some more.
As for your post processing, from what i can see on this size image on screen is that it looks well and not overcooked. If anything, the top of the sky gets a bit dark, as if you used a polarizer but that looks ok. The blue color in the water coming from the skies is part of the candy here.
Good work.

[Xia_Ke]

Thanks again for your input Gary Tried to make the best of the situation. Supposed to be nice again on Monday and Tuesday so I will have to venture out there again. Have a few other shots I need to go through from this trip. Have a couple promising shots. No Polarizer was used on this. Just a Hoya Super HMC UV filter on a Tokina 20-35mm f/3.5-4.5. So for the horizon, you think it would have better panning this shot up or down? On of the problems with this location is there is LOTS of growth all along the shoreline. Real hard to find a shot where there aren't branches and everything else in the way. I'll have to try venturing around some more to find a better spot and play with some different angles of capture next time. Thanks again for your input. Truely appreciated

[gahspidy]

Hope you get a good day like this again. If anything i would want to see the horizon brought up to lose some of the sky and gain more of that alluring water. however, then we might lose the branches which I feel is very important in this composition. It is hard to tell what could be done without being there.I can say that the centering of the horizon here does not seem to hurt it too much for me as everything seems to come together nicely with it there. If you get to do this shot again from this same spot, try getting closer to the branch to the point where you can get it out of the scene and if possible pan down a bit to have more water and little less sky.
I did try a slight crop here and felt it improved a bit. I cropped up from the bottom just enough to take away the lower left portion of the branch, and then a crop from the left frame just to keep the original aspect ratio. It seemed to improve a bit for me. It is better to bring the horizon down a bit more in this image since it is already a bit below center.
I really like the mood of this scene and feel it works even with it's tiny faults.

[Xia_Ke]

Thanks again Gary. I'll have to play around with some different angles next time I go there. I know this particular spot I was right at the water line but maybe moving around a hair I can capture it a little better. Stay tuned in a couple days for a reshoot ;)

[swmdrayfan]

Xia, this is real nice. Is it showing up lighter on your monitor? It seems a bit dark on mine, but then I have an old monitor.

[Xia_Ke]

Thanks John Yes, it's pretty light and bright on my monitor. On my work monitors though it is on the dark side.