Shadowlands

You have a number of interesting elements here. My favorite is the color scheme. Also, there are two shadow applications (at least) that nobody has brought to the challenge until now. One of them is silhouettes and you have a bit of that in this shot.

I'm enjoying the "double shadow" with the nearly silhouetted trees and their shadows crisscrossing the warm weeds. This is fine as is, but I wonder about a horizontal version with the busyness at the top left out.

Really like the way the horizontal shadows counterpoint the strong verticals of the trunks.

Mark...here is a post without the top.........

I like the repost better as a stronger graphic but must admit that it's lost some of the original context.

I like the contrast of the vertical tree trunks with the horizontal shadows. The horizontal shadows are spaced nicely through the picture too. The water in the front gives some different color and helps add a context to the scene as do the tree tops. For that reason I think I prefer the orginal but Mark's idea has merit too for making a more abstract graphic image. Unique shadow find, Lucy.

Interesting, both graphically and scientifically, because I am not used to seeing such a large mat of floating vegetation this color. Where I live, duckweed is what would make a scene like this, but it's always bright green when I see it. Graphically, I agree totally with Mark's comments about the crop. I think removing the entire mass of background trees removes some of the sense of place. I wonder if a compromise crop -- perhaps 4x5 to remove half or so of the bg trees -- might concentrate more of the viewer's attention on the horizontal shadows, but still give us a sense of place.

Hi lucy i like the graphic detail of the shadows on the floating vegation, the crop works even better
Albert Darmo

Wayne, the duckweed here in SE TX commonly occurs with red water fern (Azolla), which I believe is in the photos.

But, you are right..duckweed and mealweed are slime green colored.