Mingus Mountain Sky, Verde Valley, AZ

I reworked this image with help from my new found friends at The Luminous Landscape website. This is a group mostly dedicated to landscape photography, but not exclusively. There is a forum dealing with User Critiques that I am finding very helpful. Gets me out of my own head, if you know what I mean. The color and the B/W version are really somewhat different images, besides cropping dissimilarities. In the B/W version, the subject really is the dramatic sky emphasized by the late afternoon sun as we were returning down the valley on the Verde Valley Railroad. The cloud pattern was really striking. Their diagonals, leading towards the gathering storm, contrasted with the deep blue sky and add to the sense of drama. Contrast, Gesture, Implication. In the color version, I tried to emphasize not only the sky, but also the luminescent qualities of the red sand and the yellow/green grasses in the distance. Eight thousand foot Mingus Mountain, not usually photographed from the north, can be seen in the distance. This was shot with my Nikon 800E and the 24-120 zoom lens at 24 mm, f/8, 1/1000 sec, at ISO 200. The image was extensively reworked in Photoshop CS6 Extended. Larger versions can be seen at my website in the Arizona gallery.

 

Still waiting on Walter K for his critique of Unit 4. Unit 5 of the NYIP course is photojournalism. YUK! But I have to finish.