(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Pat: Beautiful scene very nicely rendered. I like that there is a tiny amount of movement in the water. I’m curious regarding the location. Reminds me of some lakes along Highway 101 between Florence and Coos Bay. 
>=))>
Bill…thanks for your comments and thoughts. Clear Lake is at the headwaters of the McKenzie River. The most memorable part of the lake is the clarity of the water and the various colors that one sees.
This is real nice, Pat. I might burn or clone the bright bits in the upper trees center and right and clone out the bright spots in the water. Not a big deal though. Well presented.
Harley yep…I agree a bit sloppy
Hi Pat,
Lovely shot of a place I know well. I was there this summer and found it beautiful as always and also a little hard to capture. I like this a lot. I echo the comments on bright bits. I also think is needs an ever so slight clockwise rotation to be level.
I’m not sure what else to recommend. I can imagine a crop off the top and left and then slight cloning to provide some space above the one well lit snag in the left third. That kind of crop (something along those lines) would emphasize the water and encourage exploration of its colors.
I’m not sure whether I cut too close on the left and perhaps whether crop could have taken some off the right as well, but this (below) is a serving suggestion of sorts:
Very nice photo of a beautiful place. I like how you captured the sun hitting that one snag. The bright bits in the water don’t bother me as I know they are part of the scene. I would try to darken the very bright logs or rocks right at the water line to the right of the big snag.
I wonder if using HSL in Lightroom and increasing Luminosity and Saturation on the yellows a bit might bring out more of the fall color.
Overall a very good composition.
I think I would go for a 3:2 crop, clone out the bright logs or rocks, whatever they are and clone out some of the bright spots in the water.
Pat, you’ve got some good suggestions here. I will only add that in the original, the reflection feels cut off to me. Marylynne’s suggest seems to address that either by canvas extension or by some careful cloning. That’d be the most glaring thing to me to fix. Very cool lighting. I really like how that “beach” is separated from the pine trees in the BG.
Pat, this is a very striking image, i love the contrasts between light/dark and yellow green that are going on here. Your processing of color in the greens here looks very rich, but still natural. I would suggest trying to simplify the composition, by cropping the bottom and going to a more panoramic presentation. In my opinion, cropping way the lighter tones along the bottom of the image makes the dark/light contrast stronger in the remaining image. I also agree with @GregVaughn, I would do some dodging of the yellows in the shadows to draw them out more. I would also clone away some of the debris floating in the water. If you don’t mind, i did a rework reflecting my comments.
Much better. Simplifying an image almost always improves it.
Marylynne, Greg, Michael, Adhika, Ed, and Igor …thanks for all your comments, suggestions and edits. I really do appreciate your taking the time to share your ideas. I am travelling right now and restricted to a relatively small screen . So once I get home I will work through the various suggestions and share with you what I finally decide on.
