REWORK:
ORIGINAL:
It was a hot fall day, and the best place to be was standing in a creek. As I wandered up the creek, the red rootlets of the willows looked quite interesting as they fluttered in the current.
Any critique welcome. I adjusted the colors in this quite a bit, because the original colors, except for the reds, just didn’t work.
Is this a composite: No
a7r3, 105mm, 1/50s, f/16, ISO 640
Beautiful, just plain beautiful. I wouldn’t touch a thing. It has a galactic feel with all the swirls, patches, back water colors, and more. This is using light, not just as photons bouncing off a subject, but allowing the light to paint it’s own patterns and then using your feelings to add and subtract.
I absolutely love this image. A riot of colors. I thought the highlights could be brought down a big. I decided to try and see what LAB mode could do to this image and went wild. I thought - what the heck, since this is about color then go even farther. I’m a fan of blue.
Thank you, @paul_g_wiegman for your poetic description!
@Igor_Doncov, that is a good idea to go with LAB color. I like it! I know about LAB, but often forget to try it. Thanks!
Love this one Bonnie.
I particularly love the light’s reflection on the water surface
I would crop a inch or so from the bottom…
Very interesting abstract @Bonnie_Lampley . I love @Igor_Doncov choice of words “riot of color” !
This bright red on pastel and muted cooler tones is super interesting as an abstract. The cooler and muted pastels, made a bit more saturated in Igor’s LAB experiment helps the framing to support the image strongly to my eye without competing but complimenting your primary subject.
I do struggle with the specular highlights…to me they are a distraction given their hard edges and brightness, but thats my personal taste as you know.
Wow was my first thought when I saw this image, Bonnie. The colors, patterns and movement are wonderful! Also like @Igor_Doncov version with the blueish colors. Very nicely seen and executed.
As usual Bonnie you have a knack for finding beautiful abstract subjects out of relatively non-de-script scenes. The textures in the water are wonderful. But @Igor_Doncov’s idea to enhance the blues in the image is an inspired choice that makes this even better.
Thanks, @joaoquintela, @Jim_McGovern , @linda_mellor, and @Ed_McGuirk for your thoughts. I have posted a rework incorporating @Igor_Doncov’s and João’s suggestions (color, crop). Perhaps I went a bid overboard on the blue - Igor’s version is more restrained.
I am really enjoying your rework Bonnie.
Beautiful, Bonnie. Quite a fine abstract. I much prefer the original post.
An amazing abstract Bonnie. Its a hard choice, but I vote for the rework. It is like an abstract painting.
I also like the rework. Great abstract Bonnie!
Bonnie…i thought only photographs are posted here and not expensive paintings. Appreciate your vision in creating such a beautiful piece of art.
Balan Vinod
Beautiful. Normally this is not my kind of image, but this one caught my eye immediately.
Because it is an abstract image, I prefer the rework with the stronger colors.
I don’t mind the specular highlights, they look like fine patterns painted with an extra light source under water, with a long exposure time.
Bonnie
This is so beautiful. I also like the stronger colors and blues of the reworked image. When Ifirst saw this I thought it was red salmon under rushing water. I seem to recall a painting of salmon that looks a lot like this. Anyway, great job seeing and photographing this.
Gorgeous nature abstract Bonnie! Before getting to the description of willow roots, my first impression - and hope, was that this was an abstract of spawning salmon in that creek… not too often one finds red like this in fresh water like this.
I too think I prefer the original as the blues are a little over in the rework - although certainly not by much. If it were mine (and I wish it was!) I’d simply back off on the blue saturation; I do like the other colors/sat in the rework.
As always, beautifully seen - you simply have extraordinary vision.
Lon
Thanks, @Eva_McDermott, @Harley_Goldman, @Ola_Jovall, @Mario_Cornacchione, @Balan_Vinod, @Han_Schutten, @Mark_Muller, and @Lon_Overacker for your appreciation.
Lon, I agree that the blues could be dialed back a bit. I’ll say that I didn’t have a particular vision for this - I had no idea how it might turn out. It’s more curiosity in the field, and a “let’s see what this looks like” attitude. That is certainly easier to do when one photographs close to home and can go back again and again, trying something else when the first (or second or third) round are failures. I have lots of the latter. 
Your water images are just off the charts, Bonnie. This is fantastic all around, especially the reworked image.
@Tony_Kuyper, thanks!
