Ocean Spray in Color and Monochrome

It's been a while since I felt like writing much of anything here. I have been preoccupied with a blend of other hobbies and some work writing for projects I don't care to share. I had hoped the recent aurora borealis activity would be visible, but my schedule, cloud cover, and the massive increase in light pollution over the past few years have prevented that so far.

I do, however, have a recent shot I took of some ocean spray which I would like to present in color, a clumsily enhanced version, and black-and-white.

I selected this angle looking southwest as the sun partially illuminated the flowers and foliage from my right and slightly behind the bush. I was curious to see how the light and shadow would work, so aside from lightening the image slightly, I haven't tweaked the monochromatic version.

I am still trying to learn how to use the various features available in GIMP, though, so I played a bit with the HSL sliders and the curves to generate this "enhanced" version of my photo.

The greener greens and whiter whites of this 3rd version feel more accurate to me, regardless of what the camera sensor picked up, but which version to you prefer?

HIVE | PeakD | Ecency

If you're not on Hive yet, I invite you to join through PeakD. If you use my referral link, I'll even delegate some Hive Power to help you get started.