My backyard pond is in heavy woods so it gets shafts of sunlight moving through creating a constantly changing scene. Here, I’m trying to capture that joyful, bouncy feeling that comes when the sun finally appears after many days of dark dreary skies. The placement and clipping of the bloom is deliberate, as a way to deemphasize the flower and strengthen the reflections from the water.
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This is a great shot, Mark. The flower in it’s self is beautiful and the beautiful sun kissed water behind it is the frosting on the cake. The shades of color in this flower are amazing. I love that you cut off some of the pedals. Wonderful image to start my day off with. Thank you.
Thanks Mark for this really exciting image. You’re right, the surface is just sublime, so captivating and trippy. It’s a bold composition, and your placement of the lily is pretty daring. So much for isolation, balance and harmony; you challenge and ask questions, and I for one, like that.
I took the liberty of downloading this one and spending a moment or two in Photoshop, and I post it here:
No tonal, or colour adjustments, but I have just cloned out a few little bright patches in the corners and along the edges. I write a lot about how an image “sits in the frame” almost like a meditation on a zafu cushion. We sit and know we are sitting.
Images, I believe also sit, and allow us to meditate on them. I felt by eliminating a few of these spots of luminosity or colour, the image sits in the frame a little more comfortably.
When we feel an image, we do not look, or see, we notice and respond with good feelings, or less good feelings. Little distractions rarely promote positive outcomes. They take our attention away like a tint splinter of work in a finger. They may be small, but boy, do they garb the attention!
I think this image works because of the distribution of visual weight and the orientation. The bottom right corner of most frames would be considered by some to be a “dead corner” not very rule of thirds!! 
But, here, because of the way the ripples fall slightly into the lower left, the flower drags us back and somehow (not quite sure how) balances the frame.
I like this a lot, I think it shows your personality. I don’t know you, but I’d guess you don’t mind standing out from the crowd, being unique and standing up for what you believe in. I hope my cloning and a little warping demonstrate how easily small things can begin to except great influence on a frame. Sadly, we cannot place post it notes over parts of images saying “don’t look here!” Everything is on display, and everything has a consequence.
Thank you so much for sharing, I’ve enjoyed the image very much.
Many thanks, Alister, glad you like the picture. I’ve downloaded your version so I can flip back and forth to see what changes you’ve made.
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They’re pretty subtle…
Yes, I see. It seems that your warping “levels” the flower just a touch…very interesting.
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