Gloomy Children Reflected -- did I get the right feel?

[Indigo November]

The main critique I want on this image is about the concept and feeling of it. Did I nail it?
General critique is welcomed too.
I intend to reshoot if the consensus is that I did poorly. I have thick skin and I want to know want you think so I can do better!

I was going for a slightly gloomy, dreary feel. With the reflections and lack of smiles I wanted to put the viewer on the very edge of thinking that it's creepy. Just to give a slightly unsettled feeling in the pit of your stomach.
I wanted it to be kind of timeless, no obvious giveaways regarding when it was taken.

I shot it in the evening at around 5 PM. I liked the light (helped with the gloom I wanted), and in the bright, direct sunlight of daytime, the reflections would not have been near as strong.
I think that it turned out a little soft because of it. But I wonder if that has added to the image rather that detracted...
What do you think?

The water had a very green look (it's a pond), do you think that the slight greenish hue to the reflection hurts the photo?

I am aware of the awkward pose of the girl. Her foot was resting on a branch that can't be seen in the photo.
Do you think it ruins the image? Adds to it?

In PP I did this:

1.) gave it a little s curve for contrast
2.) selected only the reflection half and gave that a bigger curve to bring the contrast closer to the same point as the upper half
3.) removed most of the green from the reflection with a color balance layer on the bottom half
4.) saturation layer at -23 to desaturate a little

EXIF:
Exposure -- 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture -- f/2.0
Focal Length -- 35 mm
ISO -- 200
Flash -- No Flash

Shot in manual mode.

Lastly, there are two different shots (same EXIF and PP) on my flickr, do you think that either of them look better? Why?
Flickr: Indigo November's Photostream

[Bruce A]

It's a very nice shot, though a little on the dark side which I suppose goes hand in hand with gloomy. But do you really capture gloomy. Not so much imo - You have the children, you have their reflection, their faces are (approx) in the top third line so what's my problem?

I really can't see their faces that well to judge how they are feeling. Again, and I'm no pro so take this with a grain of salt, there's an old saying: if you're going to take a photograph of a cat, take a photograph of a cat. While these kids may be cute and all (they certainly look like they could be) I think, for a start, the image needs to be cropped in some way so we can really see these kids faces.

[fofazoju]

Hmm I didn't get gloomy from it. I think what is ruining it for me is the vibrancy of their clothes - I would have put them in something more drab - perhaps grey/navy etc. The FIRST thing I noticed was his red clothes which doesn't say gloomy doomy for me.

The location is spot on....and the reflection is nice. Perhaps a horizontal image with more negative space? Or like the previous poster stated, a bit tighter crop on the children?

I think the awkward pose on the girl definitely works for it, I really like it.

I don't think the greenish hue distracted me (I didn't notice??), and regardless, the reflection SHOULD have a different tinge to it anyway, I would even try playing with the reflection a bit in PP - maybe even making it a little less clearer??

All and all a great shot and I like where you were going with it!