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And you did it in great style!

First,I like the tones and silhouettes...The composition and balanced between the chairs and that tree are very good.
I like those mosaics that showes at the left side side(they are damage and are not in their places)...Very good shot and good processing too!
Regards(Bobby).

There is an unusual and beautiful fusion of the picture elements. Soft and natural light work very well here. Great...

I like this POW. The tonality and the composition gives a feeling of peace. the umbrella gives it a little break form symmetry. How wonder how it would look in B&W.

A very well deserving POW. The tones and light are excellent; so is composition, which is just perfect. The predominant mood for me is loneliness - but not without a ray of hope. The person is alone, but there is an empty bench beside - waiting for somebody.

The composition entails only the bare minimum and each object, each line, each texture contributes something to the photo. The central placement of the tree might have been disturbing for many other photos, but not for this one. The umbrella, the round design beneath the tree, the roundness of the hills and the cloud stand out significantly amidst the vertical and horizontal lines. As I browse through Maria's portfolio the neat editing and sense of proportion amazes me.
Thanks Maria for sharing this wonderful piece of art. Thanks to the elves for highlighting it.

This is an excellent shot with great compo , lighting & colors.

***Ali***

Very powerful and stunning photo. Great colours and composition. Like the reflections of the benches and the tree. The man with the umbrella adds to the mood. Congrats.

nice composition with beautiful veiw . best regards <<<amir49>>>

I like the overall composition of this image it work well with the central tree drawing you to look around to see the seats reflections and distant mountains good tones that suit the image well. A good image of the week IMHO.
Regards Richard

I love that tree! it seems tortured and painfully sad and that ties in perfectly with the weather and the sea.
Holding the camera at eye level and bulls-eying the tree is one approach, I cannot help but think that there may have been other possible approaches to this scene which could have taken better advantage of such lovely lighting and all of those interesting elements.There was great potential here but I find this to be a rather commonplace photo due to the camera angle and composition.

Very nice image, I would like to see how it looks bit darker.

What I feel like is that there are some different ideas here and they just happened to end up in one photo. The person with the umbrella, the lonely bench and all feel pretty tired to me. The tree has a whimsy about it, however, I don't feel any connection to it and the person--except maybe the person is odoriferous and the tree is trying to escape.

Although I don't have any issue with technical execution, I do feel the image is pretty busy as it is and my eye isn't really sure what it is supposed to look at. The tree demands a lot of attention and moves me to the right, where possibly the (or a) person might have made more sense. Then, I find this person and yet, as I said, no connection or meaning with the rest of the image, IMO.

Pleasant colors I guess, but it seems like a great place to return to and find something more unified and connected.

It's very simple, almost minimalist. Yet the composition carries a great deal of impact. I also think the darker version adds visually to the impact of the image

I think a darker version would usually contribute to the relatively somber mood of an image like this, but I find the original version to be more appealing. The darker version has eliminated a lot of subtle detail and reduced some of the main elements to silhouettes. Lost are the small spaces in the benches, light and detail on the trunk of the tree, most of the green of the tree's needles, and most of the light on the umbrella. Most importantly, the atmosphere seems to me to have less mist in the air in the darker version, and I find the stronger shadow of the tree to be more distracting. For me, the mood of the photo is enhanced more by the lighter and more uniform contrast, the atmosphere of mist and rain, and some of the very subtle details, all of which are reduced or removed when the photo is made darker.

Great composition.
The figure on the left balances the tilt to the right of the tree, perfectly offsetting the geometry of the image.

Looks a lot better darker, but that is just a matter of personal taste. Nice Photo.

I agree with John A. The picture is strangely busy.

There are a lot of contradictions in the imagery, which I'm guessing was not entirely intentional. On the one hand it is a very calming image: one point perspective, lonely figures person etc, muted colors etc...and then there is a jarring silhouette of a stunted (not the most pretty) half- tree smack in the middle. The whole thing is disconcerting.

it's a really beautiful and special photo.. the darker version maybe more dramatic but to me the lighter version is clearly better overall for many reasons, the main reason is that one of the most beautiful elements in the picture is the wet ground and its glistening reflections, and that changes in a rather unpleasant way in the darkened version.. regards..

tarek

John A. and Phineas commented that the photo is strangely busy, and that the elements come together in a disconcerting way. I can't disagree with that assessment, especially regarding the form of the tree in contrast to the other elements. However, that is, to a great extent, why I find the image so intriguing and ripe with several interpretations that could be made by individual viewers. How can I reconcile the remnant figure of the tree with the figure sitting on the bench in a light rain (which itself is an somewhat odd thing to do)? I find it easy to make that connection, as if both are expressing in their own ways the temporality of their situation in a changing environment, and they can do nothing but sit and wait for the inevitable. Despite this, the light is still beautiful, a reflection on nature and the world. Yes, it's disconcerting, but in an aesthetically and intellectually challenging way.

I love this image. I would call it "a study in waiting."
Very Samuel Beckett. The characters (the tree and the observer) in the image are both isolated and connected. Waiting. Waiting for something. Estragon waiting for Vladimir or vice versa? Or Godot? But still . . . waiting. Waiting for the tree to give the downbeat and cause all that has been still and quiet to erupt into a concerto of life. But does the tree ever fulfill thay expectation? We shall have to just wait and see.

Great composition and understated light. Less is more in terms of the light and subtle reflections off the sidewalk. The Zen composition with the umbrella works very well. All the pieces fit and taking one out would make it less.

It is a photograph to have in one's rest corner because it breathes a zen atmosphere.
I can compare it to a Japanese gravure, very refined with the essentials things.
An outstanding work for which I congratulate you and the elves for choosing it for the POW.

Wow!
I am really surprised because of this POW. Thank you very very much for it!
I would also like to thank everybody´s comments. Thank you for your pretty well developed arguments and also for your opinions. I really appreciate all the critiques because I think taht´s the better (maybe the only?) way to became better photographers. It is very curious, because this is one of my favorite images, but it has received many encountered critiques in the past. I have learned that people or really like it or radically dislike it, and I love that!
So, the pleasure is mine for being able to receive all this constructive comments that I am sure they will help me to do it better the next time I visit this place.
All the best,
Maria

@Maria, you certainly hit on a good point. I was once told by someone that your goal should be to create work that people either truly love or truly hate, otherwise you are probably just creating average, indistinguishable work.

@ Stephen Penland, I think part of my point earlier is that it is the tree that actually makes this image more interesting. Without it, I think it would be a pretty ordinary and cliche sort of image. There are actually a lot of special things about the way it is and how it interacts with the sky and clouds. (I have to admit here that there does seem to be a change in saturation in this area that makes me wonder if some dodging or something was done in the area around the top of the tree--just a little weak feeling to me and I have been trying to discern what it might have accomplished, as it isn't obvious) But, that is probably where we go in separate directions in our reactions to the image. I see potential that was unrealized in this image--I think there is a much more powerful image out there to be had--but that tree does make you want to look back, if for nothing than as to what might have been.

The tree is antropomorphic indeed and resembles fashion POW which had enthusiastic reception  here.