River of Life

Taken from a bamboo raft, on the way to Lijiang. The full-color was

beautiful, but I keep finding myself drawn to accentuate themes with color

splashes after converting to B&W. Using the color in this way made the

river, and the scene, come to life for me in a whole new way... but is it too

much? I'm torn between 'purism' of the original images and the ability to

draw out other nuances with this kind of artistic imprinting... any feedback

is welcome and appreciated - whether you like it or not, I'm truly looking for

honest feedback here! Thanks - CMV.

Chris,

Looking at the image before reading your introduction, I was struck by how the foliage on three sides had almost mud-like tones.  It did not occur to me that this was an effect of your processing.  Love how the steps curve gently out of the haze down to the river.  The blend of blue and green of the steps and grass is very soothing.

A couple of small nits: the rock on the left distract me a bit.  It is the only thing that doesn't lead the eye to the person at the base of the steps but it really is a small nit and a small distraction.  To answer your question, no, I don't think the de-saturation of the foliage does anything but enhance the image quite effectively.  Wonderful image.

Thanks for the feedback, Michael - glad the selective 'colorization' seemed to work for you, and interesting note about the rock lower-left... hadn't even really noticed it much, but can see what you mean. Hard to crop out (or photoshop), but might be worth attempting - as this was captured from my passing raft and didn't have much in terms of re-composing options! Really appreciate the feedback though- cheers!