Dawn + 40 minutes. Air dead still, shore side (lake). C&C appreciated. With or without distant shore? I prefer without. Thanks in advance. -t
Todd - I hope you don't feel like I'm beating up on you.. even if it seems that way. To be honest I see promise in this and the other of yours and hopefully my comments might lead to promise realized. Let's get on with it.
When I look at this I can't tell right away if it's just a few rocks, or if you're standing up on a cliff looking down, hanging upside down from a hang glider.. I just don't know. I want to know. We all want to know. This is why an anchor point and/or a point of scale is so important. It could be anything we know the size of, a picnic basket, a bird, something that doesn't come in many different sizes. Like rocks. Anchor points can also add interest through their scale, texture, shape, or their difference from the rest of the scene. These are the primary failures that keep me from enjoying this photo.
Next, there is an awful lot of grain in some parts.. maybe this is accumulated pollen and hence the title? Otherwise I can't relate the title to context and that's important as well. It's important to keep in mind that while you know exactly what this is in the smallest detail, your viewers won't know unless you put the image in context through anchor points, scale, objects.
The colors seem off too. Did you artificially boost the exposure? You probably know there's something called the "magic hour", but this happens after dusk and not before dawn.. but dawn will still have it's own colors the eye can't see but the camera can.. and learning how to let your camera have it's head and lead the color is very important. I think it's great you managed to get there so early, that's 90% of the work. Most won't bother. I know, I've tried to get workshop students out of bed before dawn for a long time and it's rare they want to get started before 9am.. But once there, it's different from a normal exposure so you might want to read up on that a bit.
I like your work. It's like a hair out of sync is all. Keep at it sir.