Keyhole

That's a nice use of the natural feature of the rocky opening to lead us out into a most alluring landscape. I might myself have cut about a cm or so from the top of the picture to make the image a bit more compact but that's just a personal nitpick. The water in the cave lends a feeling of stillness and tranquility and the starfish on the rocks somehow lighten the moment.

Now that I've viewed the image again, scratch the bit about cutting a little from the top. It's great just the way it is.

Superb framing and composition, great sense of depth with a "liberating" beautiful spiral opening at the end.

An other approach could be to connect seamlessly the dark interior with the outside world with some thing like this perhaps?

I use RAW format to be able to do at first what Michail here did!

PDE

Thanks, Jack, Michail, and Pierre!

This was the full-moon low tide, and the first time in 10 years that it was possible to walk through the arch. In retrospect, I should probably have bracketed to give me the option of doing a high-quality increased exposure of the inside of the arch—I was metering off the sunlit slope, then lightened the starfish-side of the spiral in post, tapering off the exposure around the top and down the other side, and finally darkening it at the far end to make the distant rock show up as distinct from the arch; I also lightened the short bank on the right to help convey the depth of the arch. I’ll definitely experiment with lightening the inside of the arch—I enjoy having an excuse to play with the image some more. Thanks for the suggestions! And thanks for mentioning the starfish, Jack—I wanted to make sure they’d shine!

Love the light, depth, Key-hole shape, the starfish and the natural framing. I agree with the direction which Michail took in revising it. I might have gone somewhere between yours and Michail's.  But then again, I might have ended up with Michail's edit.

I actually like the image the way it is. I guess I probably would have lightened the darkness a little in post, but not all that much. It's an interesting shot and how lucky for you to be there at that time to capture it. First time in 10 years....not too long of a line I hope.

Hi Leslie. This capture really caught my eye. It very much makes me think of through the keyhole but this is definitely a natural formation. Love the addition of what looks like starfish clinging to the rock, you have a great eye for light and composition. I do agree with Tony's comment and my only thought would be to lighten shadows a tad to give a little more definition to the foreground but it doesn't detract from my enjoyment of this capture. Lovely work. Best wishes. Sarah.

Love Mike Lipakis' attempt (always great when someone takes the time), but there is something REAL about the original, especially in keeping with the title, that makes me prefer its unfettered essence.