Danny, I think your instincts are correct. There's just too much here, and the background is not particularly interesting or illuminating. Try cropping off all but the bottom 1/3 of the image and see what you see: this is interesting. I'm not sure a short-wide shot is what you want here, but the experimental crop does serve to let you know what was important in this shot and what wasn't. You could crop down to the lower 1/3 and left 1/2 or 2/3, but that's not much image to be left with from a 5mp frame!

Thanks Fred, the short and wide version I get from taking just the bottom 40% and the leftmost 75% does indeed look better. Of course then the photo could be anywhere -- but I think conveying the size of the river and exploiting the reflection at the same time were just incompatible, at least from this vantage point.

After trying different things in photoshop, what looked the best to me is cropping 1/3 off the top (along the water level) and about ¼ from the right. It looked very nice like that

I've cropped the image following the suggestions from Fred and Vaggelis. The original is http://danny.id.au/photography/photos/5c118751-shoalhaven-river.jpg

I like this very much; it is way less busy and it still showing what it is supposed to. In fact, I like the composition very much.

Well spotted Danny. The large contrast between the murky water and the bright and colourful reflection is great! I agree with you that the picture is busy. Actually I think your original version works a lot better than the one you have posted here as it to me looks a lot more harmonious. I can understand that you thought cropping would bring more attention to the reflections, but I also think the original versions makes me see the reflections clearer than on this cropped version.

I think I like this crop better, as it focuses more on the lone man and sets a better mood. I like the first because I really like the trees in the background. I guess I might 'compromise' on the crop at the top and take off only too the line of the trees.

Danny,

I saw inone of your comments you mentioned a teleconverter; can you please tell me what that is? I would appreciate it.

A great idea that works really well. Love the composition.

I like it as it is. The surface tension of the water creates the reflections which are evident in the darker water as wel as that in the light. I think the problem is the quick jump from dark to light which makes the eye think it's busy, but it's really not.

To my untrained eye, this is a very good capture.

Well done.