A Winter's Day....

Yes, know the spot well! Beautiful etching-esque quality to this one. These graceful oaks are just so photogenic, and with fresh snow to contrast with their dark limbs, they make a winning combo. The slightly blue cast says it's cold, and I love all the detail here.

Simon & Garfunkel/don't know the song though.

This is quite exquisite, and your title is perfect.  This has great mood and flow, and the larger version has great detail. Really nice work!

This is a lovely image. With the etching feel it might work better in black and white.

Really like the image, but it looks a little too blue/cyan for my tastes. On the web version, maybe back off 15 pts in hue/sat on each color?

"I am a rock".  (I was a teenager then)
While your image certainly has plenty of mood, it is not depressing like that song.
 

"... and a rock never cries"

I know the area as well. It seems like all the climbers practice in that area. The composition has all the trees leaning from right to left. I'm not sure I like that. The center of interest is on the large tree on the center left but the right side seems to be imposing itself on it. Could just be me.

This looks fine, Lon.  Definitely has a strong sense of winter.

It's interesting how your tree image is so similar to your last grass picture.

The composition works great, Lon. I agree with a little bit of warm tones, too much blue as it is. Overall I like this a lot. 

I can see what Tony's getting at with the comparison of your last grass image.  I hate too say it but your definitely leaning left these days.  I like the image a ton.  The blues are strong but fitting.

A nicely balanced composition with a lot of dynamics and delicate details to my eye, Lon. The cooler shades convey the icy atmosphere well to me.

As a right-handed person I prefer a flow from the left to the right - so maybe flipping the image horizontally might be an option. This is a very personal opinion of course.

Peter

This is an exceptional image, Lon. I find the subtle tonalities sublime. The blue/cyan tones, complimented with the browns/rust colors in the trees make for a great combination. The comp. works well as is but I might experiment with cropping a bit off the left side and top as I see these borders as the least strong. In any event a stellar image.

I especially like the wind blown snowy side of the trees which give some nice depth between the trunks and branches. Sure a wintery feel.  The cool blues work for me, WB adjustments will give a different feel which are fun to experiment with.  I'm have the same conversation myself with some winter birch images I recently took.  The processing can go many ways, I like your choices though.

I wanted to thank everyone for their comments and observations.  Regarding the blue/cyan.  It's always a fine line for me.  Since I usually pay attention to color at the time of capture and I especially try and observe the presence of blue/cyan, I often don't want to eliminate the tones.  However, the challenge becomes in finding that natural balance.  This being the 4th version, and within the psd file are 3 separate layers, each reducing blue and/or cyan.  Then add the concept of working on an image for too long and you can no longer see the forest for the trees.  anyway, I appreciate the observations on the color.

I'm also so glad that a few of you mentioned the left-right thing.  Regarding compositions and how we view an image, I believe that those of us who grew up learning to read and write moving left to right, that that does impact how we view an image.  An image that is open on the left or flows left to right is more appealing to my eye, in general, but of course the image and subject matter a great deal... ;-)  In this particular image, one can look at it either way.  I like the open area on the left, allowing the eye to enter the scene from the left.  But then, I'm kinda blocked as the main tree is kind of a barrier preventing the eye to keep moving right. Flipping the image as someone suggested, there is a much nicer flow left to right with most all the trees leaning that way. So I think it works very nicely reversed horizontally.  Of course it doesn't look correct to me, cause I know it would be backwards... ;-)

Good stuff, thanks for the comments.

Wow, Lon, this is absolutely stunning.  The graceful arc of the trees create such wonderful movement for the eye, accentuated by the lovely contrast of the snow on the dark toned trees.  The larger image is especially nice, allowing one to see the subtle warm tones here and there of the remnant autumn leaves; the overall color is perfect to me.  In my opinion, your fourth iteration is spot on exquisite.  I honestly do not see how this could be any better.  Incredible work as always.

I commented on your next image first Lon, prior to seeing this one. I love them both, especially the contrasting takes as you noted. This one has a very nice dark mood of winter. Processing looks great to me.

Can't see anything I would change, I like the dark but not overly cool tones here.