Morning over Van Horn Basin, Pueblo Mountains

Early Autumn morning light begins to descend into Van Horn Basin.

Pueblo Mountains, Oregon Basin and Range.

I love such places and I love this photo. Light, colours, composition - it looks really impressive to me.

Regards.

Excellent image - I like the way the Z shape holds it together. Have you tried shaving just a small amount off the rhs, to lose the lighted rock at bottom right?

Thank you, Jack. And thank you, John. John, I looked at your cropping suggestion, and while it does give a more continuous flow to the black shadow there, the crop requires cutting off too much of the right edge, eliminating some of the sweep of the basin. If I take it from the bottom, I lose too much of the shadow anchor. Ultimately, I think I like the little lighted bit where it is, as it anchors the corner to the lighted part of the rock formation, rather than the shadow. I appreciate your suggestion, though, which caused me to think about this in a way I hadn't before.

When I viewed the thumbnail I thought the shadows were too dark, but when I clicked on the larger version I do see some detail in them.  Personally, I could use just a titch more, but that's a small nit on an excellent image.   First of all, it's great that there isn't any haze, so the colors are stunning, and the cloud formations pointing toward the upper left balance the image out nicely.  Really beautiful!

Interesting that the shadows strike you that way. Myself, I rather like the contrast they give, as it increases the impression of brilliance on the sunlit areas. The part that I'm not completely happy with in this image is the *lack* of shadow contrast in the background. That looks like haze to me, which is wrong for the image (and for the reality of the scene). It's an artifact of my efforts to rescue detail from that part, Velvia being a particularly unforgiving film for underexposure.

An excellent well composed image John! The superb view point, and unusual colored rock, really make this an eye catcher! Love the hard contrast! Just because you can pull out lot's of shadow detail doesn't mean you always should. Just my opinion though, and definitely not that of the masses.

All the best,
Neil

Thank you, Neil.