Mystic Falls 2

The thing that strikes me most about this photo is the incredible level of detail you've captured in the shadows. The amount of tonal range and clarity is really amazing, not to mention the fact that you nailed the color balance dead on. My hat is off to you for doing such a great job!

I think that technically you've rendered this scene very well - clearly you've shown an expertise for calculating precise exposure and also (from what I can tell by the low-res screen version of the photo) for careful focus to include such stunning detail.

My biggest complaint about the photo is the somewhat ambiguous placement of the waterfall itself in the frame - personally I'd like to see it pushed a little bit further to the left and maybe just a hair lower in the frame so that it would sit closer to a true third. With the way it's placed right now I feel like there is some visual tension being created because my eye wants to pull it into the top-center of the frame.

I also feel like the shutter speed (1 second) is a little ambiguous - not quite slow enough to blur the texture out of the foreground but not quite fast enough to catch the detail in the foam up close either. Personally I would love to see a longer exposure version of this photo, but honestly I think a stopped motion version could be successful too.

Finally, the light you used to capture this scene, at least in my eyes, leaves a little something to be desired. By no means did you shoot this in bad light with regard for the scene, quite the opposite actually, but I still feel like if it were a hair more directional it would add something here. Looking at the EXIF information tells me that you captured the image close to noon - it would be very interesting to see a version of this photo shot closer to sunrise or sunset. That could warm up the colors a little and give the light a bit more direction too.

All in all I think this is an excellent photo and hope to see more like this in the future. Keep in mind that all of my comments here should be taken with this grain of salt: When photos are produced at a such a high level as this one, any adjustments will be minor tweaks rather than clear changes, and opinions on art are usually highly subjective.

Keep up the good work!
-Nathan