Wrinkled thoughts dawning - a photo on Flickriver

We were on a brief vacation at the seaside in Milano Marittima, a locality of the ancient town of Cervia and I could not refrain from trying some sunrise sessions. If you are not an occasional visitor of my photostream, you will know that this is a recurrent custom for me :-)
In this stretch of the Adriatic shoreline beaches are exploited to the last inch for tourism - beach umbrellas and chairs literally everywhere...
So I decided to try a different environment. Cervia is renowned for its "sweet" salt, produced there since Etruscan times. Indeed, the town is nested between the sea and the saltpans. This is the first shot of a series dedicated to the saltpans of Cervia at sunrise.
The saltpan is an environment rich in biodiversity - full of bird calls and fluttering wings... I have even spotted a large group of pink flamingos in the distance, but they were too far to be decently captured by my poor 300 mm lens.

This photograph is from my second sunrise session at Cervia saltpans, and my 14 years old son Jack was with me - with his brand new Nikon Coolpix 610 and my old tripod - his very initiation to this kind of photography, although it was not his first sunrise ("A wonderful experience", he yawned as we were heading back to the hotel, "yet not to be repeated too soon" ;-)).
The world around us was absolutely still and silent, but for the calls of the birds in the darkness (there were none here, though). When we arrived at the chosen place (quite near the house portrayed in my Reflections from the past) the stars were still shining in a velvety night sky. Then curtains of light began to rise from the horizon, revealing a translucent sky draped with just a few clouds - some moderately interesting ones, still not enough for my taste... however one cannot summon magnificient clouds at her will :->.
However the surface of the water was as still as a glass mirror and was giving wonderful reflections. Then, at last, even the brightest stars had a last shiver and faded. The sun rose above the horizon and the diverse life of the saltpan began unfolding in its full scope.
I have to admit that I am not highly satisfied with this shot, but sometimes it is better a modest photo than no photo at all :-) Hope that you will enjoy it anyway.

I have obtained this picture by blending an exposure bracketing [-1.7/0/+1.7 EV] by luminosity masks in the Gimp (EXIF data, as usual, refer to the "normal exposure" shot), then I added some final touches with Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Some bands in the sky returned here... they seem to be due to use of the MMM mask from Saul Goode's excellent script - not always, though...

Taken in: Italia / Emilia Romagna / Cervia (show map)

Taken on: August 2, 2016

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Camera: Nikon D5100, f/10.0, 4 sec, 14mm (=21mm), ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D5100
Aperture:	f/10.0
Exposure Time:	4
Focal Length:	14mm (35mm equivalent: 21mm)
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	+2 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	ViewNX 2.10 W
Show full info

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