Obviously don't want to be the party-pooper, but I'm a firm believer of honesty. Honesty may hurt in the short run, but wins in the long run. That doesn't mean to say that one should deliberately hurt people and be blunt about it, but I'm just no politician, so please take my comments as if embedded in poetry.
I think the image fails. In particularly it fails to bind the elements. The separate elements are nice (but not great) and could possibly be glued together to form a beautiful composition, but as it currently is, they are just that: separate elements. Add to that a pinch of contrails, which I believe to be a photographer's cardinal sin, and an unclear message, which is like no message at all, and you have all ingredients for a salty tasting stew without meat, a cigar without tobacco...
Of course this is tongue-in-cheek. You know how it goes with critics: they are the would-be play writers that never made it to the theatre. Poets without Duende, Flamengo dancers without Pathos. They end up writing for the newspaper.
I couldn't sleep last night and was thinking of this image. This is what i saw:
1. For the dock to bind to the rest of the elements, it probably requires a bit more presence. This could perhaps be accomplished by cropping either just before the attachment to land or well after. That way there is a more distinct path I could travel from the viewpoint to the dock. I believe the dock is supposed to invite me into the scene, to go over there and sit and contemplate the beauty of the context.
2. Once I'm on the dock I will likely sit facing right (given the elongated crop). There has to be something interesting to look at to the right on the horizon or in the sky. Contrails are obviously not it.
3. The tree, if at all interesting, is partly cut. In my opinion one should either crop something completely but thoughtfully, or not at all. I'm not saying that I know how to do that. In this case I think I would crop something of the top, as it is already clear that the branches are leafless at a certain point. I personally do not need the additional info to gain that atmosphere. This creates an additional triangle leading into the frame and also gives what I think is a more pleasant balance between land and sky. If you don't want to crop the tree then it could probably use some more room to breath.
So I think I would try two other options:
Either move a little to the right and face more to the left, still cropping off the clutter but giving the tree more room to breath and showing more of the dock, or
moving slightly to the left and just face more to the right, cropping the tree at both the top and possibly some on the left, but preserving the flowers.
In either case more dock, and something interesting to look at.
I do like the B&W as it better shows the lightfall on the bank. Doesn't have to be as contrasty as some other suggestions, as it distracts from that lightfall.
I personally wouldn't offer this image for sale, even if it were compositionally stronger or had more interest. I wouldn't sell it because I believe there has to be a really, really good reason to leave contrails in the scene. It kinda shows that the Photographer didn't take the time to wait for a better opportunity.
PS: Please, please fellow forum participants: REMEMBER to ATTACH the PROFILE to an image. Mac users are likely looking at a dog-awfull color image if you don't...
