Etching Progress - Water Pooled Path

Work has continued on the etching:

water pooled path - stage 1

I've created some distance with a spit bite horizon line, and a soft shading in the puddles.

This all looks great on the inked up plate, but now its printed I've reached an impasse. I'm just not sure I can stick with the unfinished areas down the sides. These looked great on the drawing, but maybe not on the print.

Here I've drawn shading over the white areas, and I think darkening the sides will serve to focus attention on the puddles, and draw the eye through the image. Just to be sure I've printed a few off at stage one, and then its back to the acid and a good strong bite for this plate.