The sun seems a little too blinding to me

But I really like the way it shines off that rock!
if you cover up from the tree branches up it really emphasizes that shine

I agree, it does seem too blinding, however the reflections as well as the compositions are great.

WWOOWW!!

Blue Heron on Yellow Creek - northern Illinois

Hello Jon, how are things going? An excellent shot btw, never seen a blue heron, thanks for sharing :)

Pradeep! Wonderful to hear from you, my friend. Things are great with me - I am preparing to view the presidential debate in a few minutes. How have you been?

Cheers,
Jon

Brilliant!!

Did you use a ND-filter to allow your camera using a long exposure time whit bright day light? I'm considering buying one of those becouse I want to make shots like this one. If you used a filter, what kind of filter did you use?

The colors are absolutely amazing! Beautiful shot!

Thank you for your comment.
I didn’t use ND filter, for this shot I used a circular polarizer HOYA HMC.

looks like the himalayas... where is it?

Yes Lars, this is the Zanskar river, north India state of Jammu & Kashmir

Scary!!!

wow...great shot!

Amazing!
where is it?

Northern Pakistan. Hussaini Bridge over Passu River with the Passu Cathedrals in the background (left).

impressing!

Preciosa fotografía. Enhorabuena. Saludos

Thanks Beamer. The original definitely has more punch - maybe too much, but I'll play with bringing out the greens a bit more. I really wanted to have an "old Florida" feel to it which is why I dialed the color down...

Great scene, good capture; on a composition side, the 2 tilted stems break the perspective not allowing the eye to follow the waterscape. I agree to Clyde: lots of potential in the scene.

It could very well be my eyes, but the center portion of the photo, where the lighter tones are located, seems to be a bit out of focus to me. I agree with Clyde, too. I would definitely frequent this place, though. Lots of interest in the details.

What I really like about this image is that there is so much detail for the eye to wander over, pause, and wander some more. I also like the processing treatment that you have used here to give it a vintage feel. Nice work.

l'idée est bonne, le traitement original, mais je trouve la photo pas très lisible, tout ce mélange. J'aurais moins forcé sur le traitement. Si c'etait possible (ce qui est pas évident) plus de lumiere.

Hmmm, maybe I don't have a prejudiced opinion about the composition of the arch becouse to me it is not familiar. I have never seen a photo of it. I don't know how the whole arch looks likes and how it could be showed diffrent.

Thanks for the comments. I thought I had captured the boat in time before it got behind the arch but all of this was rather difficult to put together since I had to shoot through thick plexi-glass with a lot of glare. I was pushing the lens up to the glass to avoid as much of the distortion as possible. Seeing the arch everyday and almost always in its entirety for photos, I wanted to capture it in the different way. I tried to use the arch to draw the eye down from the sky to the river and finally it's base.

I'm with Clyde in regards to the arch - for me, it's a big distraction. The subject here is the light - it's wonderful!!

Best,
Jon

I live near the Arch. I have seen more Arch photos than you can imagine. This one is original and shows the Arch in context. The composition is more creative than people can imagine.

If this is highly altered in post-processing, you did a nice job of not over doing it.

If there is no HDR/psuedo HDR manipulation, than you caught the light at the perfect moment with perfect exposure.

Anyway, this is one of the best Arch photos I've seen.

It's an interesting photo in the context of the Arch. It's not one of the standard views of it and the emphasis seems to be more on the surroundings than the arch itself. (Personally I find this interesting as I had no idea what the surroudings were like and did not expect what one sees on the other side of the river.)

Is it a phenomenal picture? Not quite. I am not sure what the missing ingredient is here. It would be nice if the boat were not behind the Arch. But the light really is nice. And, as I say, it's interest is in contextualizing the Arch rather than focusing on it.

Beautiful, once again :)