Henderson Bay 2 in B&W

Since I was primarily drawn to the lines and textures in this composition, I

wanted to see how it looked with a black and white treatment (vs. the color

treatment on the following image). I'm curious if people have a preference

and why.

Black and white is better, more better. xYz

I much prefer the B&W.  The poles are much more distinct, especially those on the left -- you processed the photo very well.  The color photo has them a bit muddy, and they are not as separated from the water.  Because this is more about the poles and their geometry in the frame, color is relatively less important, and the B&W concentrates on the forms and doesn't let color get in the way.

Thanks Stephen.  Yeah, I was initially seduced by the color when reviewing the photo, but then realized what it was that drew me to the composition in the first place and so converted to black and white.  This also allowed me to bring out more of the detail in the sky and foreground posts, while driving more of the land mass into black, since detail there doesn't add anything to the image.  Speaking of B&W processing, I've noticed that you do superb work in that area.  Do you use any special plug-ins like Silver Efex Pro, or do you achieve all of that in LR / PS?

Michael, I use Silver Efex Pro 2.  I've used PS in the past, but for me Nik makes it possible to fine-tune the conversion to a much greater degree.  I sometimes run a completed B&W conversion through Nik's color effex pro 4 software, and I also use Nik's dFine noise-reduction software.  For color photographs, Nik's Viveza 2 is useful.  Yes, I'm a fan of Nik software.