Salton Sea Tilapia-Remnants

On a recent trip we had some time to visit the Salton Sea. There had been another Tilapia die off. Instead of usual die off photos I played around with sepia(in camera) and a warming filter(post process)and some increased contrast. Not sure if it works for anyone, including myself.

Interesting photo, but it looks too dark and low contrast to me (at least on my monitor sorely in need of calibration here at work).

The processing abstracts the subject enough to keep it from looking grisly, but I can almost smell it from here.... Perhaps, a different comp? I dunno...

The highlights are not working for me. I could see a more straight-forward version of this working well in the EPJ gallery.

I saw your white out pic and had to look at these to see what kind of feedback you got. I liked it when I first saw it, but not enough to look again, so the question is why?

You might try a couple of things....different processing altogether. Do you have Nik products? If so, this one screams "bleach bypass" filter to me. It would not shift the hues at all, but it would be a contrasty if bleached effect. I think that would work here.

Also, Catherine's suggestion about composition is a good one. The fish head is almost dead-center (pun intended) and the image might work better if you had the head at the top of the frame or the bottom.

Fascinating Jim, interesting and emotive shot. I'd recommend increasing the contrast; I think it emphasizes the garishness of the photo.