Thanks for the wonderful, thoughtful entries to this contest. I was hoping to see people push the boundaries of what is a photographic image, and am very pleased with the results.
Honorable Mentions, in no particular order:
Robin Lew. Beautiful colors and reflection, though a tad over-saturated for my taste:
Markus Grompe's Celestial goose:
Third place, Alla Gilbourd. This image has the dreamy abstract view I was looking for, but perhaps a little too busy to rank higher. Nice image though!
Second place, aldeca. An interesting blend of an identifiable component (the duck) and abstract background. It looks like the duck is swimming into a river of fire.
And the winner is Gill Kopy, with this wonderful image that doesn't look like a photo to me; I would have guessed it was an oil painting. It reminds me of abstract art from the 1950's and 1960's, and nicely illustrates a vision beyond the literal world. Nice job Gill!