Looks like a nice place. The composition could be better though - more of the interesting foreground and less of the empty sky.

Mmmm I do like, but yes, perhaps a little less of the sky, focussing on the pool instead.

Finally a desktop worthy of respect. Very nice; thank you.

I like it very much, thanks!

@Frostmint "Finally a desktop worthy of respect. Very nice; thank you"

As if any of the others respect less... The composition throws me off, but apart from the sky it looks awesome.

@chris gin "The composition could be better though - more of the interesting foreground and less of the empty sky"

As a photograph, I might agree with you, but as a wallpaper that empty sky provides a space for icons - the purpose of a wallpaper to some extent at least?

Placed into my rotating wallpaper collection. Thanks!

I like the composition and the lovely soft tones which are very relaxing to look at. I've had this via the Loupe Download feature for a little while and it already occupied pride of place as my desktop. I'm very glad it's made its way to the main part of the site.

Really lovely. Thank you Clémentlivolsi

I half agree with Chris Gin, but do think, the foreground could be optionally less too. Apart from that a really nice composition - thanks!!!

The banding in the sky is very distracting and ruins the photo.

I like it

This is a really nice scene. I love the colors you captured. At first I thought Chris was being too picky, but after putting this on my desktop the sky does feel a tad barren (even on my little netbook). I'd love to see a recrop or another version entirely. I think this one deserves it.

I think you did a fantastic job with the HDR editing. It doesn't have the "HDR" blurry look to it, which in some cases is pleasing, but I like how you made the image look like you had just snapped only one picture.

"Worthy of respect" ... it's OK of a wallpaper but may be a bit far from that phrase. It is very obvious even from a thumbnail that this image was over-processed. I downloaded a while back through the loup and was not entirely amazed. I dare to be different from the rest of the commentators. This image would have been much better without burned HDR tone-mapping. The more exposures used in an HDR process the least satisfying results are usually rendered. If you carefully look from a thumbnail view around the center of of the cliff and to the right you will clearly see burned areas and uneven exposure. Personally I no longer engage in tone-mapping or much HDR with my processing since the process creates unrealistic and flat results most of the time. Don't get me wrong it is possible to achieve fantastic results with HDR but one have to be patient and very careful with the process. A double exposure and simple masking in photoshop would have achieved much better results in my opinion. Sorry for being to critical I am just getting fed up with the multitude of poorly processed HDR images on the web in general. I am not referring to this image or the loupe there is abundance of such images on Flickr and other photo sharing sites. I just wanted to share my thoughts. Cheers.

Gorgeous. So Surreal. Looks very crisp and the colours really make it pop. Nicely done!

Très jolie scène, je regrette cependant le petit manque de piqué procuré par l'utilisation du HDR. Je me demande si tu n'aurais pas pu faire aussi bien avec un seul RAW.

I disagree with the critics of the composition. The volume of clear sky in the image balances the complex textures and patterns in the foreground, providing balance and contrast, both important elements of good composition. The critics also overlook to difficulty in avoiding cardinal mistake of splitting the image precisely in half by putting the horizon dead center vertically. You either have to put the horizon above or below the center line and out of frame elements in the scene often dictate the choice. In any case, if you don't like the composition, download a larger version than you need and crop it to size in Photoshop - or whatever graphics app you use. Lightroom and Aperture make it easy to use a graduated filter to darken the foreground. At the same time, you can darken the shadows as well to increase the appearance of depth in the image.

As for what is an appropriate amount of image adjustment in HDR, the technique is still quite new, not to say experimental, and, as is the case with all new methods of imaging, the results are bound to appeal to some people more than others.

For instance, HDR can - and often does - make a scene look unnatural. But who's to say that isn't the legitimate intent of the Photographer? Surrealism has long been a style in photography and the means to achieve such effects are legion. HDR is just the latest and, like those that preceded it, it is controversial. But just because some people are unhappy with the results doesn't make the technique invalid. Though, admittedly, some people use it to better effect than others, it's still a matter of taste and personal preference.

Nice, clean, crisp, friendly, easy-on-the-eyes, pastel-ly...

...and a great job! Yes, some technical issues, but the colors are lovely!

great work!

@Chris Gin

I've made it 1/2 sky and 1/2 ground because it's a fisheye , if you take more foreground you will have a big distortion . it's not like a 10-20mm sigma