Arches NP

Marvin, I see that you have posted several Arches NP photos for critique. I was there once and I hope to return for sunrise and sunset one day. You may wish to do the same because the type of lighting in your series is very flat and dull, which tends towards flat and dull landscape photos. I’d also be careful about foreground elements (such as half a bush and a tenth of a rock), the placement of mid objects (such as the dead tree, which could have perhaps been separated if you’d stepped to the right), and elements that ruin an image for some (such as the wooden walkway). And, you should experiment with a polarizing filter, which often work well in challenging situations. Just my initial impressions... Regards, Jeff

Marvin, again I think there are some elements you could control that would improve your photo, and some elements that are out of your control.  You have an orphaned portion of a boulder on the left edge, and the snag (often a nice element to have in a desert photo) is obscuring a significant portion of the main rock formation.  Moving several feet to the right may have solved both of these problems.  It may be that your viewfinder is not 100%, and if so that's a good way for unwanted elements to sneak into the photo.  The cloud cover is beyond your control.  I sometimes select just the white of the sky and add a lot of contrast to try to get some variation is the nearly pure white layer.  A better solution is to come back again and hope that Mother Nature is kinder to photographers.