While the topic is water, the subject of this photo is the life guard stand on its side. This indicates that I'm here early in morning and the beach is still closed for swimming. If you are looking for untouched sand, the Jersey shore in the summer is the wrong place to look. The thousands of footprints give us an indication that there is going to be activity here very soon after that sun comes over the eastern horizon. The water in the scene is only a small band of ocean between the beach and the sky. Here I did not worry about shutter speed at all and was more interested in creating an early morning feel for the photo. Would you have used similar processing or gone in a different direction?

Your words "In this recent shot" got my attention. These dam bird photos so captivate me. The juxtaposition of these elements create such an otherworldly arena. The contrast between the stoic concrete forms, powerfully compositional, and the water, from tumultuous to relative calm, would be a lot to work with all by themselves, but graced with the delicacy and elegance of the egrets, apparently unaffected by the surround, make these a unique visual experience. Thats about as well as I am able to articulate my thoughts. I used google earth some years back to understand better this place. Its a wondrous place.

I know that I posted this photo before; but it does fit into the topic and I'd like to include it. The important part of this photo is how I got it. I was sitting in our motel room that was right by the lake. I knew that the sun had just set; but was not really interested in going out shooting. (I was going to try star trails). When I did look out the window to check the conditions, I noticed that there was a really nice scene developing in front of me right across the street from our hotel. I quickly grabbed a camera and a tripod and headed right outside the model. This photo was the result. Again, just the light without the lake might not have been anything noteworthy; but with the water, it became one of my favorite shots of this year.

(an interesting note is that this photo scored very poorly in a competition held by our club. The judge felt that the details in the bottom of the frame are distracting. I left them in because I think they add interest to the photo? What do you think?)
Erich

"...my favorite little cypress and tupelo swamp".... There's an expression you don't hear every day .

I'm finding it hard to put my finger on what makes reflections so effective in a photo. After all you're just seeing more of the same stuff but upside down. Without actually trying it I can tell that if you tried lifting the shadows in the reflections to bring out more detail it would detract from the overall effect. Perhaps that's part of the effectiveness. The reflections are a darkened, glossy version of what's reflected which allows them to be a bit more dramatic. Plus we're seeing the reflected stuff but with less bright harshness. If the whole scene was dark and glossy it would probably be too much but if it's just the reflections, it's an opportunity to include that element of subdued lighting while keeping the brighter version to maintain the overall balance....

....or something like that .

Some of my thoughts about this. I am glad to see this effort you are making to provide an area of interest for exploration and discussion. However this sort of thing is so far off the beaten track, I don't see how it will take hold. I know that is a fairly pessimistic view, but so many people here on uhh are obsessed with camera gear and processing gadgetry, they don't seem to have much interest beyond those rather superficial infatuations. The actual subject you have chosen, is literally as deep and wide as the ocean. A very high percentage of my own photography is focused around water, so within the category of water are dozens of sub categories. A few shots here that fall into a couple of those. Water is just magical. What you are able to see in it because of photography, is simply astonishing.