I was getting a little frustrated editing this photo and just started moving sliders and ended up with this - a pleasant surprise. The leaves were floating on a pond and were about this same color, but the water was a dark green/brown/black.
I meant to comment on this, but was on my phone so didn’t. I know exactly how you feel about an image that you are drawn to, but just can’t find the right way to process. The color is the first thing that grabs me, but then it’s the strangeness of it given that it’s a natural scene that should be green or brown or shades of those. Did you loosen up the sharpening as well or was this soft to begin with?
This is gorgeous and compelling for being so unusual. I don’t have the feeling that you manipulated the colors – the result is very successful. And the composition very nice!