Storm and Crag

Very special!

This is drama and grandness yet with a sense of intimacy and it really draws me in.

I think the depth gives it that grandness and also beckons me almost as a vortex. The mist provides the personal touch and that, combined with the variety of lighting, moving from foreground shadow to midground brightness to background shroud, really does give it photographic subtlety and nuance. In lesser hands, the foreground would feel bland and lose luster. In yours, it maintains total integrity, shows a variety of light and shadow within a narrower range than what it opens up to in the midground.

Even your perspective and angle add such a degree of expressiveness. There is just enough off-kilter feeling to make me wonder but not make me dizzy. If it were a cityscape, it might be Hitchcockian.

Beautiful toning work as well.

Laurent, Sean, thank you both greatly.

Fred, thank you especially. You have made quite number of thorough comments on my recent landscapes and I appreciate the effort and the input -- particularly from someone who doesn't shoot landscapes or follow them all that much.

This image is the best from a series of images I took largely out of frustration. I had spent a couple of full days at Grand Teton and not once did the mountains fully emerge from the clouds and mist. So, waiting to pass some of the day at one of the closest turnouts to the mountains, I grabbed my longest lens (300mm) and started to scan the mountain sides for interesting forms and cloud patterns. This is by far the best from that endeavour and I am pleased anything was salvageable.

This is actually the full-colour version. It does look 'toned' but it is actually just a warm white balance. I had assumed this would be best in B&W and worked up a a couple of tonings. But, I tried a colour version and liked the little hints of blue in the shadows versus the warmer rocks that are catching the sun.