Early dawn

Wow, what superb light and composition.  It's a magical, mystical scene, with the low fog contributing much along with the low, uniform levels of light.  The only thing left to do is to take a series of photos as the animals move and change positions; in some, the heads will be better positioned than in others (this is very good; I only wish the center bird (heron?) and the next one to the right had been looking left or right).

Wow! Simply amazing! At what time did you take this shot?

Best regards,

Alain

Wonderfull atmosphere, looks mysterious ...  Well done !

Very interesting. I like it.

Eliseo.

Cool and mystic!

Wow, great atmosphere and view here!

Love the color tones and mood :)

Excellent atmosphere!

What a composition. Well done.

just to see this photo inspire a moment of peace

Beautiful tones and mood

A magic environment. Congratulations

it is magic

Amazing capture. Great composition and the blue tone is very nice.

This is a rarity, Sandor! Truly an art photo, in my opinion. The bluish-grey tones, the composition divided in two parts: one part of the birds in the water and the other part the land with the deer with contours of the trees, which all coherently create continuity of the composition.

Thanks for sharing it,

Kristina 

Just perfect. Sets the mood in. Liked the reflections, the softness and the mist.

Thanks,

Harsha.

Gyönyörű munka, gratulálok.

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It is not so much a weakness but I would love to have seen this in black and white as well. As for strengths, I find this composition to have so many different layers and so many stories that perhaps there would not be enough words to describe them all. The mysterious tree in the background that could even be thought of as rain cloud. The gazelle or deer in the middle dear looking a little forlorn. Finally, the birds. This is a photograph that is worthy of being seen in a huge print and I feel as if only then would the true stories start to unwind.

I felt this photograph was a trifle murky. I put it through Auto Levels in Photoshop and got a surprise. Then undid Auto Levels and did Auto Color and got the same surprise. See below. This is apparently a black and white photograph to which a blue cast has been added. Rather elementary pictorialism. The photograph in blue cast is more interesting than in black and white. But I think a nature photograph does not need manipulation. It ought to be intrinsically interesting. This is not.

The photographer probably went to considerable trouble to find and make this image and to obtain a good exposure under variable atmospheric conditions. It has three interesting and somewhat separate horizontal layers from top to bottom, or bottom to top, as you might have it and which suggest a form of art that is not often seen in landscape and animal life images. His portfolio shows many animal and flower photographs but much more conventional than this one and with few as different or unique as this one.

Does it work? No doubt for many, it probably does, and I can understand the awe that might be felt on viewing a grouping of animals as seen here in the early dawn. I do not register a wow reaction. That I think is due to at least two factors, one of which is the very cool blue tone of the image, and another factor, related to the composition formed here by the multitude of subject elements. Although it may be close to real, the blue tone makes me feel I am viewing a sub zero winter ice rink instead of a pond that is full of organic life. But that is a minor reaction. I do feel however that the photographer might have (should have) taken 10 or 20 timewise regroupings of these animals in order to give an increased impact and poignancy to the scene, which presently seems to me to simply be complex. Not an easy task with all these animal actors, but not an impossible one. In his timeless treatise on composition in photography, Harold Mante studied over time a landscape of variously positioned animals and a sheep herder and waited until the lines and visual spaces connecting the various animals and human presence broke into a powerful composition (of linear and circular affinities, and play of spaces). The French photographer Boubat has taken similar and patient approaches with similar landscape and human or animal subjects. The present photograph is very interesting as a fine and curiosity arousing animal image. However, while admiring the tenacity of the photographer to capture such an early morning scene, I think there was likely considerable potential in this scene to create a more artistic visual result by trying different shots based on the movements of the animals over a short period. Pehaps he did just that and this is the chosen result, but the portfolio shows just one visualisation.

I like it, but it may improve with 16:9 aspect ratio. As is it looks a little truncated by the frame size in a predominantly horizontal composition.

Okay, someone with a better eye than mine tell me: Is the nature or is this post processing. Looking at it again I think this is a composite. I am willing to be disabused.

Wow wow wow!