daverave

I really appreciate all of the comments.  Thanks!

I could see the crop you're talking about Chris, I'm not sure about that vertical face on the right side of the darkest layer as it doesn't fit the more horiz nature of the other layers.  I do like to maintain standard image proportions in many cases though. 

This is on the very northeastern edge of the Emigrant Wilderness (where it ceases to be granite) just below the top of Leavitt Peak.

Everything comes together in this image although I could see cropping the bottom quarter or so (as there's not much there) to focus attention on the elements that really make this photo shine.

I like it just fine as is (well, other than that little dot that someone else mentioned ;-)

I don't know, I kind of feel like the water movement is a bit of a distraction with all of the other perfectly rendered parts of the image. Maybe there's just too much of the moving water dominating the scene? In this case perhaps a faster shutter speed might have worked better although then I guess you'd lose the DOF.  Great image anyway...

Wow, that is a sweet image! I might try and dial down the blown out highlights on the cloud and reflection but that's pretty minor overall.

I really like the DOF here Museeb, focusing on the main subject. In my opinion there is way too much concern these days with trying to get everything in an image in focus these days through multiple shot blending, etc.  Cameras were tailor-made for shots like yours here.

I agree with Tony, the sky, while dramatic, needs some work to relate better to the foreground rocks/water/ice.

Thanks for the input Stephen and Jeff, I guess it's a good thing that I don't try and make a living doing this ;-)

That's an interesting observation, Stephen, with regard to how much "work" it is taking you (and I guess others) to understand what is going on in this particular image.  I would agree that there is a lot happening in this photo, perhaps if the distant rock was more out of focus it might help isolate the tree while keeping the light and reducing the lines somewhat. 

However, I know some viewers seem to enjoy trying to figure images out and aren't expecting to understand every thing in the image on first glance. For example, this comment I saw on another photographer's image: 

I tried to figure this out all on my own... Still, I could not figure out the scale -- no clues seemed to be present. Even with that, and even after looking at the color version, I still don't know what is producing the patterns in the upper right. It's an enjoyable challenge to try to figure these things out, but in the end the appreciation of nature's abstracts as captured by your camera is much more rewarding.

This "common" evergreen is no more or less ordinary than virtually every object in everyone's portfolios.  Uniqueness is an awfully high standard to meet. I was just attracted, as you mentioned, to the greens, particularly the freshest ones, superimposed on the pink light of the sunset and the textures of nature.  I appreciate the rewards of nature's textures and light as well as, like the commenter above, its abstracts.

Thanks for the discussion, I will strive to keep your critique in mind in the future (although I imagine I will have a difficult time not taking photos of "common" objects.) 

FWIW, maybe this will help with perspective:

Thanks Alf!  I'm glad my whinging about the ratings at least drew out one comment ;-)  It does indeed have more impact when viewed larger. I guess from an artistic point of view that it's difficult for me to understand why art, even apparently bad art such as this, needs an explanation to make it successful.  This seems to be a particular problem with photography, but anyway:

The tree is at least a half mile in front of the cliff in the background of which the height shown is a couple of hundred feet. I like to use long lenses to compress distance in many of my photos and vary the degree to which the background is fully in focus.  In this case it is just slightly out of focus, maybe that's a problem.

I'm also attracted to combining blue and yellow in images.  The brightly illuminated yellow portions of the cliff are supposed to mimic the branches that used to be on the left side of the tree.  For me light is always the most important aspect of any photo and this was some pretty sweet sunset light.

Thanks again Alf for commenting, I appreciate your time.

The last bit of alpenglow on a mountain behind an old snag.  Please view larger!

I'm not sure Larry as I don't do this kind of processing.  You'd have to figure at what point in the post processing the haloing showed up and then adjust to avoid it. 

The alternative using the image as it is would be to take a soft clone brush and sample the sky immediately adjacent to the halo and then clone over it... kind of labor intensive though.  Others may have different suggestions.  Good luck!

The little disconnected bits of green around the edge don't really help the composition much... taking a step or two closer to isolate the flow might be an improvement if it was possible. 

However, as I have by far the lowest rated landscape photo of the last 24 hours, you should be looking for comments from others because I plainly know nothing about photography.

Well that request didn't work, no comments, 3.7 rating... I guess I am just blind to how bad my photography is.  But really, is this the worst landscape photograph of the last 24 hours by quite a bit?

I agree with Stephen on this one, it looks unnaturally magenta on my monitor... but then since I have the lowest rated landscape photo of the last 24 hours you should probably be looking for comments from others because I plainly know nothing about photography.

Feels a little dark overall, try lightening it up but not so much that the white water gets blown out.  Just my opinion...

Fantastic image, Jeff, looks like some alien backbone to me.

Very nice composition and conversion although maybe just a little bit too much contrast particularly in the little distant sand flat on the right side.  Where is this, Kah Kit?

Superbly rendered image of this landscape, lots of detail at all levels.  I'd be tempted to push the saturation in the little bit of red in the sky.

I think your HDR approach would work here if you could eliminate the haloing on the left side in both the mountain and its reflection.

Nice scene, exposure and composition... too bad no one was in the boat!

Undecided about what?  I like the composition and the light.  I might try an exposure with the background even blurrier.