Beautiful photograph, lovely mood.

The focus seems to be more on the boat than the dock but wow what an excellent hdr! I love the mood here as friiskiwi said.

Thank-you Friiskiwi. This is one of those few times that I have come home with what I envisaged

Thanks Amanda - the boat/canoe is there for foreground interest, however I used the jetty to focus on, much easier to see in the high res - I don't know why but the smaller 'thumbnail' version makes the jetty appear much further away?

"A pier is a raised structure, including bridge and building supports and walkways, over water, typically supported by widely spread piles or pillars." I don't think a dock is the same thing, is it? (Here in the mountains, you don't see many piers, so I'm not sure...)

I've always considered docks and piers the same thing and I've lived on water my whole life. They don't connect to anything and both just stick out over water for viewing or fishing or whatever pleasure... of course here the homeless take grounds under it for a place to sleep.
Author: I see what you mean but I think you would have had more focus on the pier on with how you have things placed if the boat wasn't such a dominant color. What do you think? The eyes are going to go to the dominance of the picture then browse around imo. Still love this though. It's a great job that I'm envious of

I don't know Mossy - I am sure one at the lake has different needs to one at the ocean. I don't live anywhere near the ocean but this one has a raised structure which is a walkway to the pontoon/jetty bit so I guess it meets the criteria that you quoted - I'm sure someone will red flag if they think otherwise

It HAS to be over water and at some point end over the water, is the only main rule.
This is fine Author IMHO.
Very nice shot and good luck to you.

A pier is not a boat dock, period. Just because it is over water does not make it a pier. The keywords are "Bridge, building supports, and walkway." Stairs or a ramp leading to something floating on the water is not a pier. Close, but no kewpie doll, regardless the location.

A superbly processed HDR! There seems to be a bit of jpeg artifacts from the image compression when viewed in high-res mode but I don't see why that would affect any persons opinion of this photograph. The tones are perfectly exposed throughout the scene. Well done!

The smaller photos, loose a lot of quality, which is why I always push for High Res

Thanks for your input MossyB - this entry has been checked by Mods after being red-flagged and considered on-theme. You did however, forget to quote this part of the theme" There are so many types out there and they go over all types of water sources". I would appreciate if your comments were directed at the image quality or lack thereof and save your discussion of 'off-theme' by utilising the red-flag system. That's what it is there for.

@ SilenceDoGood & Friiskiwi - I think you are right with the jpeg artifacts coming from the compression as I had to downsize the image by half it's size to meet the 5MB limit. The HDR was made up of 3 RAW images.

Just for info: The structure has metal 'arms' and wheels on the bottom of the walkway which allow the jetty to be raised and lowered according to the water levels - probably because of the tropical wet seasons when it isn't unusual to have over a metre and a half of rain it would be under water in the wet season and high and dry during the more pleasant dry season

Just a question.... but what is supporting the "dock"?

Good question - I always assumed that it was connected to the bottom of the lake by chains but have always been afraid of swimming under it. I am no engineer but I had another look only a few days ago and instead of chains there are two metal 'arms' that are connected to the dock end and to the cement block that you can see at the start of the walkway that allow it to move (swivel?)up and down. The underneath I can only describe as being like some sort of fibreglass catamaran hull on either side - it has a channel through it, don't know what purpose is and sorry my description may lack in the terminology department lol

what a view and what shot, wonderful