Surprise Pond

Exploring late in the day, I came across this small pond that I hadn't seen before, tucked away behind these reeds, something must be warming it just enough to remain uncovered by snow.

Lovely how the frozen water in the foreground reflects the sky above and shooting towards the fading light in the distance gives an indication of a corresponding faint glow.

I bracketed the shot and used LR's HDR merge, which possibly wasn't necessary, but the light levels were quite low. Again, my widest lens at 18mm is not wide enough and the fringe of reeds to the left of the pond is a bit distracting, but eliminating them would be framing too tight against the water, so I included them.

Annoyingly, the head of a cattail against the trees right on the edge of the bright spot in the sky, is also an irritant. I should have moved slightly to place it against the sky helping increase separation of the mid ground reeds, along with more snow to the upper right of the reeds.