Lake - Wideangle - Landscape

[jaikris75]

I tried this photograph for the recent DPS Assignment on Wideangle.
Cropped from a larger photo. Did some editing on contrast and exposure using Nikon Capture NX2.

The scenic beauty was inviting and the reflections of sunlight in the waves caught anybody's attention. I tried from various angles, but this one - for which I lied down on the shore to the level of water, inspired me the most.

I am very new to photography, and would like to learn. Please comment on this photo, and I am more interested in the negative comments.

Shot with a Nikon D 5000.

EXIF:
Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV

[Krusty79]

You want negative? Well, here you go! Just kidding. I am assuming this was hand held because you said you were lying down. I would normally recommend a smaller aperture to increase your DOF, but it sounds like you didn't have your tripod.

It looks like some of the highlights of the water are overexposed. If you had a graduated neutral density filter, you could invert it to darken the water relative to the rest of the image. A circular polarizer is great for reducing glare off non-metallic surfaces like water. I was going to check the histogram of your shot, but the right click has been disabled, so I couldn't verify that. The colors look a little flat to me, so I was going to suggest this tutorial by LeeR to give them more "pop":

Levels: Getting the Professional 'Pop'

I'm not sure about that dark stump in the lower left corner. I'm trying to decide if is a distraction or foreground interest, but I'm leaning towards distraction. I think it would help if there was one really distinctive tree that acted as the main subject, but in this case, the row of trees acts as the subject.

All in all, a pretty good shot for a beginner. You do have a tripod, right?