All's Quiet

All’s quiet at Northmoreland Lake, one of my go-to spots for a healthy dose of the natural world. In Summer, the shores teem with fisherman and waterfowl. Many a darling duckling’s brought a smile to my face here in this very spot! Folks like me love to walk the 1.1 mile path surrounding the water. Red-winged Blackbirds trill from cattails, and Eastern Bluebirds bicker with Tree Swallows who refuse to concede that the bluebird trail is just that. Volunteers didn’t erect those boxes for Swallows. Not unlike our Winter weather this year, the lake’s not sure what it wants to do — freeze or not!

I like viewing this image best on the black background.

A cropped version of this image can be viewed here.

[Yeshanghai]

Will some people go ice fishing soon?

[bkb in the city]

Beautiful shot

[penny]

peaceful.

[Jane Anderson]

Wonderful silky texture on the surface of the water.

[mittens (Marilyn)]

Brrr, it does look cold. Lovely shot.

[Living at the beach 365 days a year!]

I agree with the others, but I also love the simplicity of the photo.

[Jane Pittenger]

The s shaped line really makes the shot

[Janet B.]

@yeshanghai Thank you for commenting! I'd love to see people ice fishing, but our Winter hasn't been cold enough so far to freeze the water sufficiently. We'll see what happens as Winter progresses! :-)

[Janet B.]

@bkbinthecity Thank you very much for your comment and fav! So nice. :-)

[Janet B.]

@pennyrae Thank you, Penny! :-)

[Janet B.]

@cejaanderson Thanks so much, Jane! :-)

[Janet B.]

@mittens I always appreciate your comments. Thank you! :-)

[Janet B.]

@jgpittenger Thank you, Jane! I only noticed the s-shaped line after coming home and viewing the image on the computer, and I liked the way it led my eye around the surface of the water.

[Janet B.]

@nydelignorsk Thank you for your comment and fav! I like the simplicity, too.

[Lynne Hart]

Very tranquil, nice patterning on the water.

[Janet B.]

@lhart I appreciate you commenting. Thank you! :-)

[Stephanie Swift]

This is really lovely in its subdued winter way. I think I might have cropped off the top, to leave just the beautiful tones and textures of the water, and the delicate lines of the vegetation in the foreground.

[Amanda R.]

Gorgeous! I just love the colors in this. What a beautiful, peaceful scene!

[Janet B.]

@tristansmum Thank you, Stephanie! I love that you provided a suggestion to make this better! I am so new to processing. Most everything I post is SOOC or very minimally edited, so I am always open to suggestions. Cropping outside of the typical "as shot" dimensions doesn't come easy for me, but I will give it a try! :-)

[Janet B.]

@emrob Such a nice comment, Mandy...thank you so much! :-)

[Taffy]

I think this is an improvement, but Jane's @jgpittenger comment re context is worthy of thinking about one more crop. You might look at including some of the bank. I tried it two ways (using my computer screen top to cut off the original). One way is to include about 1/4 of the bank, to show where the curves are leading and where the pond ends. The other is to include the road, but have it come down from the upper left corner to give it a sense of continuing rather than distracting from the main foreground. For what it's worth. Being on 365 has taught me so much about the advantages to thoughtful post-processing!

[Jane Pittenger]

I just tried Taffys idea re cropping down to the point that the road comes out of the top left corner. I love it. It makes it feel as if the Z or S curve extends even further

[Gena Pegg]

Oh yes, I see it now. This is lovely also but much better cropped.

[Janet B.]

@taffy Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment, Taffy! I so appreciate your time. I will play around with both of your suggestions. Amazing how much I'm learning about cropping and composition from this one image!