Free as a bird

Hey! Long time no talk to. Moved to Japan and have been so busy, but I have a bunch of free time now, so critiques!

I love this. There's a very distinct pastoral quality to the landscape that reminds me a lot of the dutch masters. The sweeping greens and blurred reflection in the water really heighten that feeling.

Using the figures in the front of the image gives it a wonderful sense of depth, though at the same time the high tech nature of the parachutes seems to clash a little with the very archaic style in which the landscape is rendered. I feel as though several time travelers went back to the 1600's to do action sports. For me, that's the primary reason that I would take away from the impact. My eye wants to sweep out over the valley and the lake, but it is continuously pulled back by the wires down to the small figures. There is a definite sense of freedom to the scene, and the joy of flight really comes though, especially in the character about to take off, but the style and subject don't quite seem to match up. On the whole, I love it though. On to the next image!