Internal Monologue

[Runmonty]

I would appreciate any critique, observations or comments on the following image.

Thanks

Internal monologue by Dwayne, on Flickr

[Marko]

Hmmm - hard critique eh?
Perhaps the foreground blacks in the sand could be punched up a bit.

background is just beautiful (lovely exposure) and i dig the tree shadow.....but the human subject's gesture is possibly too boring.
I wonder if the photo even needs the person given the tree shadow.
hope that may help

[theantiquetiger]

Critique...

I feel like the shadow does nothing for the image, may even hurt it. the soft colors is amazing with the black suit as the contrast to the image, not the palm shadow. I know you don't like to crop, but could you try cropping it just above the shadow and off the right side to keep the ratio?

[Runmonty]

Thank you gentlemen. That discussion really does help a lot (even if one of you likes the man and other doesn't and the vice versa for the shadow - haha).

AT - I LOVE to crop (although I generally like to maintain well established and common aspect ratios). Many of my photos will include a minor crop and sometimes a major crop

By way of background, this was actually a fourth iteration of the scene . I started out with just the banded sand/sea/sky. (in retrospect I think I may have been subconsciously thinking of Andreas Gursky's - Rhein II ). The second version included just a navigation marker in the water. The third had the man (and also some different people) and the fourth included both the man and the tree shadow. After editing, this was the version I preferred (but with no real conviction)