Framing the image - balance: Image 4

The second digital image I submitted in the set subject competition on "Reflection" was a straightforward reflection of a building in a pond.
Image 4: Mill Pond

This image is split vertically into two halves by the water line in the pool. In a vertical direction, there is therefore a reasonable balance between the elements. There are small distracting elements in the upper half of the picture that do not appear in the reflection, such as the white painted building in the background on the left hand side, but I think this is too small to affect the vertical balance.
Doing the weighing scale exercise in a horizontal plane, I felt that the image is not well balanced:-
- The mill and its reflection, which are the initial focus of attention, are just to the left of centre.
- The trees and ground on the right hand side of the image are of much less visual interest.
- In addition, the white painted wall in the left background and the dark red car behind the tree on the right hand side are visual distractions in the scene.
I think that the image could be improved if I had turned slightly more to the right to exclude the white painted wall in the background from the frame. This would have placed the mill building and reflection on the left of the image. The pool and the bushes on the bank would have filled more of the space in the frame which might have been a better balance.
The judge awarded a score of 8 out of 10 for this image. He drew attention to the difference in light between the reflection and the mill building, which was not apparent from some of the other images of reflection in water. He felt that the red car and white building in the background were detrimental to the image and he would have preferred to remove or downplay these if it was his image.