Red Rock Canyon #16

First serious shots with my new Sigma 10-20mm lens. Suggestions

and comments welcome.

Diane, I would say the image lacks a focal point. It contains a lot of rock, sky, brush, but nothing that draws the eye in and serves as a starting point for exploration. The standard advice is "get closer". So you should look for a good foreground and work from there. In your image it might have been possible to get close to a shadow on the rock, or really zoom in on one of the sedimentary structures, while still keeping the distant peak. Hard to say without actually being there. I might have climbed up to the red unit, looked for something of interest (a few pebbles, some lonely struggling plant, some X-beds) while incorporating some of the vast background.

That expanse of sand in the foreground tells the story here for me.  I can imagine other settings better for panoramas, but the starkness of the terrain immediately underfoot is also relevant and interesting to me.

Nice work, Diane.

--Lannie

Thanks so much Christoph for your comments.  I know I was still trying to get used to the wide angle lens but understand what you're saying.  I suppose I looked at the angles as the focal point.  I've cropped the shot - maybe this is more what your thinking of....