One brief break.

I like your concept here Charlie. I might be tempted to bring up the highlights in the trees left of center if it were mine.

I cannot add anything to Eve McDermott's comment, except to say that I would chid myself from succumbing to that temptation by recalling the dictum that "sometimes less is more"; and more often than not in photography, in my experience.

postscript; I just showed this to my wife and she agrees with me that this is "perfect as it is, very inviting, and the colors are lovely"; her words.

Thank you Eva and John and you wife John. I played with this a lot and felt too that the high lights should be brighter and fooled that way too. This is the way I liked it best, but do not calibrate my monitor and that could be some of the reason.

Anyhow I so appreciate hearing from any and all of you.

Charlie

I like it Charlie--has a nice spooky look to it. The green sky is a bit odd, but odd works for this scene.

Dull photo? I don't think so. I'm one of those people who likes the "gentle" scenes in nature.
My first reaction was that it needed just a tiny boost in highlights, but after looking at the large version for a minute or two, I can see how it might alter the mood here. What I might try would be a micro-contrast curves adjustment, stabilizing most of the straight line, but making a tiny localized sinus curve just where you want to make a gentle increase in contrast. Of course, it's just as likely that I would toss out that change, but it might work, especially if you erase the parts of the new layer that you don't like.

Charlie, I am on a my work laptop, sitting in an airport waiting for a flight that's late, and this thing has rotten color, so I can't comment on the color, but I do have some comments on comp. The trees on the left bother me, being kind of half there and and half not. It pulls my eye away from the bright area. Also, for me, a more diagonal tree line would help give a leading line to help keep my eye deep in the image. My first impression was mostly on the horizontal-ness of the tree line, but when I really look there is plenty of depth in there.

I like this Charlie! I think the light is pretty cool here and the more one looks at this the more you see and feel. Your larger version is especially nice to view and I'm enjoying this very much. A wonderful view of nature...

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

No doubt Charlie one must view the larger version to really take in the visual impact. The small beam of highlighted area works well as an excellent focal point. Like others commented I might trend the exposure or highlight level up just slightly for another look.