This first picture is normal. That’s a local beach not far from here.
In this second picture, I took the same one from above, but took the contrast right down.
If you take the contrast down on an image, eventually, you won’t have any clarity at all. Reducing the contrast cuts out “information” in the image, it reduces “opposing” colours or tones.
Turns out, we need a certain amount of opposition not just to create depth, but also to make out what we’re trying to look at.
It’s fun to hang out with a bunch of people that have the same opinion or view of the world, but without feedback, contrasts or differing opinions, it’s hard to sharpen up the work and be clear on the whole picture.