Hi Ramesh,
It's bold of you to have gone in for the shot against such adversity!! You have pulled it off quite well. I'm ok with the flare at the bottom but the top one is too strong especially the part showing the sun. You may want to crop that part to soften it a bit.
Thanks for sharing

Its a flaring image Ramesh. Top Notch! Love the BW conversion too. What I really love is how the flare seems peculate down to the tree and kisses it so gently! The flaring at the bottom adds another dimension as well. There is a dreamy feel to this image which can easily transport the viewer to the realm of the fairylands. A simple composition with brilliant execution!

Its all flare ! wonderful execution. The bright sun is ok with me as against Nirlep's view.
-RD

I like the infrared appeal here Ramesh. Can you please explain a bit more about it ? I am not sure about the flare though, more so at the bottom left.

Lovely image & will look more beautiful with less flares.Flares seems to dominate the overall image.Looks like Infrared to my eyes too.Is it so ?

Thanks friends for your views. Few words about the image: it is an IR image shot at noon (In fact IR is giving me an option to shoot at that time of the day when light is not generally considered to be conducive to photography). I included the sun and the resultant flare to give it a feel that the tree is an offering to the sun. The flare being an extension of the sun's presence is how the sun accepts it.

I will post a simpler and different perspective in the illustration forum for comparison.

I saw this image quite a few times, surely I want the flare, but am not really sure if I want it like how it is here. I have tried a few flare images in the past, probably you have more experience, but was just thinking of sharing whatever little experience I could gather during handling of flare. Even when am head on with the sun, I try not to include the sun or block it with my hand and then just allow the flares to be present on the lens, secondly I move around a little on both sides as well check the angles up and down to see where exactly I want the flare to be present in the frame. This has worked for me at times quite well, but then definitely the intensity of the sun, the clarity of the sky etc all contribute to the difficulty in handling the flare. I saw the other image too, that was much easy to handle and though nice, this one appeals to me more. I like this image a lot and thanks for sharing Ramesh...

Thanks Nilanjan for your inputs. It definitely helps. Flare is something I want to experiment more. With old lenses (No ED, No Nano coating etc), flare was something easy to generate. The present day lenses need that extra effort to get the effect. Will definitely give your suggestions a try in the field. Thanks again.