Welcome aboard, Janet. This is fine first post, too. Beautiful scene, sky and reflection. It looks like an eruption happening. I might select the trees, brighten them a bit and bump the luminosity, but pretty minor. Very well done.
Hi Janet,
Welcome aboard. The lighting is very nice and I like how you positioned the rising sun in the frame. Harley is an expert on these types of photos so try his suggested edits to see whether it strengthens your composition…Jim
The light and color look very nice. I’m a little undecided abut the vertical contrail in the composition. It becomes a strong element when I think the image should be more about the mountain and the reflection. Plus the positioning makes it look like it’s a volcanic plume emanating from the mountain instead of being a cloud above it. This looks like a great place to visit repeatedly to see what else happens in the sky.
Janet, welcome aboard. This is nice first post.
I agree with Harley’s suggestion to bump up the brightness of the trees a bit. I also agree with Tony’s comment about the contrail.
The light is very nice, and the mood is quiet and peaceful.
-P
Thank you for the suggestions!
Thank you!
Welcome Janet. Its a great composition. I like the lighting on the trees just as it is, but Harley might be on to something. Like Tony, I am mostly bothered by that jet trail. I would say try to clone it out with PS content aware cloning tool, but then I realized its in the reflection as well. That trail just grabs my eye and holds it for too long.
Hi Janet, and welcome to NPN. This is a very nice first post, with great light and color. You have already received some good suggestions for improvement, so I won’t repeat them. I would like to see the mountain larger and more prominent in the image. While the light in the sky and reflection is nice, the sky is relatively featureless (except for the unfortunate contrail), and thus you have a lot of negative space in your composition that is making the mountain look smaller. This can be cropped, but ideally you would have wanted to use a longer focal length to zoom into the scene. I would have liked to see something more like this. While including the warm light on the right is probably what led you to use a wider focal length, the zoomed in view tells a better story about the mountain, some times less is more.
Thank you for the feedback!
Thank you for the suggestions!
I think Ed’s crop suggestion nails it perfectly, Janet. It simplifies the scene down to all those beautiful elements that are left. BTW, great first post and I hope to see more.
There is a beautiful glow to that peak as it rises from the surrounding darkness. I agree that it’s a bit unfortunate to have the contrail. Welcome to the site and hope to keep seeing more of your good work.
There is a lot to like about this image. It has great light and color. I like Ed’s suggestion but I also that this is a great candidate for a pano crop either some from the top, bottom or from both.
Some very cool light. My eye keeps bouncing from the mtn to the bright righ side…which is not optimal. Seems like two elements fighting for attention. Saw the crop suggestion below or maybe burn down the right side? Either way you have a nice image here.
aF
Thanks! The glow from the peak was beautiful/magical. It was a great morning 
Thanks for taking the time to look!
Hi Janet! Welcome to NPN!
I dig what you’re going for, but my best advice would be to either crop out some sky or some water and get that dominate line out of the middle of the frame. Cutting down on sky can do wonders for a not so interesting scene. Or if you were wanting the reflection to be the subject of the photo, I’d crop in tighter on Mt Adams and really get that line level.
If I we were there onsite right now, I’d say get lower and include more foreground/water and less sky or go with a longer focal length to make the reflection shine.
Cheers!
Janet,
Welcome to NPN and a very nice first post. I’m gonna go contrary to most and say that I think it would be a rare occasion where a contrail actually enhances an image. Sure, it’s a jet trail, I get it, but just as a different way to view this, it’s at least dispersed enough and I too imagine it as steam venting from the volcano… Also, with the reflection I thin there is great symmetry here. In fact, yet another option might be a square crop. It’s an interesting option anyway.
The only other suggestion would be to pull back on the cyan just in the snowy peak. I’ve tried to do that in my rework. Otherwise, the colors are really great here. Crop isn’t exactly square. Yet another option if you want to reduce the impact of the vertical contrail is with a panoramic crop. The treeline and reflection and the cinder cone on the right, are all set up for a nice pano. Just a thought.
I’ll have to play around with the cropping and color, thanks for taking the time to look and your suggestions! One of the reason, I asked for a critique was the contrail as I was undecided whether it helped or hurt the shot…and I’m still undecided!