li river 2015 Li River Sunrise (II)

Ian, indeed a nice portfolio, and I wouldn't actually rate this image among the best. I still like it, but there's better in the porfolio.

Many of the shots in POW are tourist shots. Once seen never forgotten.

A very restful and enjoyable image. And a pretty landscape well pictured and stirs the imagination of stories of the exotic East by such as Somerset Maugham and Joseph Conrad who painted word pictures for us. The figure adds so much to the feeling of depth as do the hazy gray cliffs marking the horizon,. Lovely enchanted color pallete. Has a symmetry and balance that are ideal to the subject. If you don't like the subject or care for anything that might go on a postcard or a holiday card you will not like this one and so it goes. There is such a perfect progression of colors in the sky and the reflection. A charming image. Watermark does not disturb me, as why should it. Good change of pace from tension with a little splash of color to tickle the cones and rods in our retinas. Time for a little fantasy imagery to brighten up things and add some Chinese saffron and herbs to tickle our photo palate.

Yan Hello, I think this is one of the most fascinating places I've ever seen! The light conditions are really impressive. The overall picture fantastic! Congratulations and good job. Gianni

It is unjust to criticize the most beautiful creation of nature, but to enjoy what we could deprived of in the next few decades ,we are lucky to keep registering this beauty in our eyes and hard disks.
Regards.

A classic site of China, possibly as popular as the Half Dome in the US and other icons of scenic photography. I like the chosen position of the person, as the intersection of his head and the river line adds a little tension to an otherwise quite static image, however pleasing for its calm. The vertical option adds a bit more impact than the horizontal image in my opinion, although I think the image would gain by eliminating some of the grey clouds by cropping (upper roughly 20 % of the image) to direct attention more to the foreground and increase the impact of the wistful diffuse cloud reflection in the foreground water.

An opposite critique might suggest that the grey clouds in fact balance the dark and featureless mountains (other than their two dimensional form in the photo). I agree that the Photoshop treatment has left an unwelcome halo over the mountains, easily seen in the larger image.

Most of the images in his portfolio are I think much too punchy (Photoshop modification, or the like) and loose the more subtle appeal of otherwise good compositions and color balance. On the other hand, the chromatics, composition and subject interest of "A New Day" and "Morning Wave" deeper within the portfolio are in my opinion much more successful and show considerable perceptive skill.

Saad - We're not criticizing nature's beauty. We are critiquing a photograph.

Perhaps a crop from the bottom 10-15%, but no more. And I would not do anything that shifts the fisherman nearer the center of the image. The slight offset adds a small sense of movement and dynamic balance.