Spotlight

Nice capture of the sun rays and the reflection on the water. I like the foreground trees and the way the rays draw the eye towards the tree. I might consider cropping out the foliage on the top.

I just love crepuscular rays (the technical term for those sun rays, ) and this is a fine example. The diagonal eye flow along those ray to the tree silhouettes is good also. I too find the limbs intruding at the top distracting. I wonder what this would look like from a lower point of view. That would raise the intruding branches at the top out of the frame, reduce how much of the frame is occupied by the water, and possibly create an even stronger diagonal between the sun and the foreground tree on the right.

That really is an interesting spotlight out there! Like everyone else, I live the rays, but not the twigs on top. I had the same thought as Mark about shooting this from a lower angle, but sometimes private property or the lack of climbing gear gets in the way of the ideal point of view.

Very nicely captured sun rays, Barb. I like the sun path on the water too. The comp is good with the tree grouping on the right. Re the other branches, I think you were trying to make a frame using these which I think could be a good idea. But in this case, I probably would agree with others about getting rid of the top edge branches (but not the sky?). And possibly those branches on the left too, leaving the trees on the right to balance out the sun and sun path. What a lovely scene that would be to come upon!