The obligatory jetty shot :)

[Kit]

We have no doubt all seen the jetty shots - scenic area, jetty, either bare or with a lone person standing on it, that are pretty much bread and butter to any photog's collection. But I have never been anywhere that actually had a jetty with a worthwhile view in the background, until we visited Lake Rotoiti, where the previous mountain-shrouded cloud shot came from. I liked the competing textures in the wood and on the smooth, dark water and the b & w certainly makes for a more interesting photo. Enjoy.... ;D

Deffo looks better clicked on and seen in black.

[Stevewebb]

Really nice Kit. It might be cliche but I would challenge anyone to resist taking a shot there.

I think the only very small improvement would be to skew it slightly to put the left hand post in the corner of the frame as there is a small strip of water showing.

Really nice place and a great image to represent it I would say

[rasbury]

This is a beautiful image Kit.It is an image that you will see many different photo's of but we have not seen your version yet and this is really good.The conversion looks great to me and I do like the various textures in the image.

[Antonio Correia]

Would you Kit, repeat the photograph at a higher level ?
Until all the posts are in the water ?
With the water line right in the middle ?
Broader image, larger crop... more horizontal...
Not so much texture on the wood...

[katynoelle]

I agree with Antonio, Kit - it seems like it should be uber panoramic but this is, still, beautiful! I love how the snow looks like frosting on the mountaintops!!!

[pjerry]

Indeed still beautiful. A lovely place to be. I second ehhhh third the remarks of Antonio.

[Antonio Correia]

I now contradict myself. ;D

Instead of an horizontal crop a vertical one would also be suitable.

But I think I would like best the horizontal.

It is easy: chose one

[jeeperman]

I couldn't pass up the shot and you have handled quite well. I would like to see the image as Antonio has described. This is nice but the high detail may be stealing some of the serenity.

[Barry]

I too would had taken this image if I was there, some good comments already made. Although I like the monochrome, I'm sure that there would be some nice colours in this.

[nickjohnson]

Kit, I like this very much. I agree with Steve – about the small strip of water outside the post on the left side.
As for the point of view – I'm going to go against the trend here and say that you got this just right.
There are three things that make this special and well above the norm IMHO.
First is the point of view – with the tops of the posts just braking the water line. That gives a nice dark rectangle box to draw the eye.
Second is the post shadows all pointing into the frame and ending at a board line that also goes to our dark box.
Third is the line of ice / snow - from top left and into the thirds at the right side. That sweeps the eye nicely round the corner.
Super job – well done.

[Kit]

Thank you all for your kind comments and suggestion - all very much appreciated.

However, the "strip of water on the left" is actually a shaded facet of the left hand post, rather than water. Zoom in to see. But I agree, it does need a crop, as it appears to be water, rather than wood. I can see now that I should not have cropped right up to the posts, but should have left a little water on either side.

Antonio - if I get the chance to visit again and the light is good, I will re-shoot this as you suggest. The image is generated from 3 separate shots and to get them steady, I had to sit the camera on a post that was bang in the middle of the jetty. Next time, I will take the tripod and raise the point of view. At the time, I didn't really like the posts being above the level of the lake, but pressed on without really thinking about it as I had a car-load of rellies, sitting patiently, waiting for me to finish.....

Nick: those bright areas on the range of mountains to the left are actually shingle slides. I have some more images showing these more clearly and of course, if it were in colour, it would be obvious that it was not snow. But I can see how you would think that it was. I had "shingle slides" so firmly imprinted in my mind that I didn't imagine they would be seen as anything else. The snow is only on the mountains in the distance, at the upper right third.

Thanks again to all - I have learnt a lot from "seeing" the image from your various points of view.

[The Wirefox]

I kind of like that the image is split in two horizontally. It would only be cliched if it had fluffy water, pink light and shiny rocks peeping above the surface. Now that style really is done to death and every time I see it I have to reach for the Gaviscon. Photographers find some really kitch stuff to benchmark there abilities against and fluffy water and soft focus jetties are up there with be worst of them. The clown with tear print from the seventies is probably the nearest artistic equivalent ;D I see no fluffy water and no shiny rocks...clean, crisp and fresh with this one... so no cliche.

[Kit]

Here are those mountain tops that have all the shingle slides on them, some of which can be seen in the jetty image. Not great fun if you are tramping, to have to cross one as they can be absolutely treacherous. I have left this in colour, so you can clearly see the demarcation line where the trees stop growing. Not looking particularly for c & c with this, as it has a brassilian faults in it.