here is the original, in all its glory. the final product is a combination of blending exposures as well as a mild hdr treatment. from there, extensive photoshopping was done to make it look more natural. seems counterproductive now, but also well worth it. the final colors are almost entirely made up by me because, as you can see, there was little to no color that day short of sepia brown, pee yellow and black.

this shot was taken about 10-20 minutes before sunrise... not that i could actually see the sun. the bright spot in the upper left is due east, though.

also, you can see the original reworking of this image in the "layers" challenge. i went more to the yellow part of the spectrum in it, and the water took on a metallic sheen.