Visualize

I took this shot last April, while walking the boat docks in Seward.  I liked the reflection in the water, liked how the ripple of the wave just under the bow added a different look to the reflection compared to the solid object above, and was generally satisfied with the composition of the shot.  What I didn't like was that it looked a little "flat" to me, a little too "one note" in terms of light...

With the long weekend and the grey days of winter lingering, I've been spending time revisiting photos, playing the mental game of "what would I do this time?" or "how could I approach post-processing differently?"  In this instance I decided to try processing the photo in Photomatix Pro.  Although this program is usually used in processing multi-image HDR situtations, some interesting results can come be achieved when processing single shots as well.  I chose one of the presets, bumped up the saturation a tad to emphasize the blue and red tones even more, and called it good.  Not anything that hasn't been done before, but another step in the learning process.  I think the key thing is, as Ansel Adams believed, to visualize what the end result will be when you take a photo...

Nikon D40, Nikkor 55-200 DX VR