Spring in the Desert

I like the tones and color, but the composition isn't strong IMHO.
Cropping off most of the sky helps it for me.
I hope this doesn't offend you, but I'm attaching a crop I would do.
I will gladly delete this if your not kosher with it.

Hi Matt, Actually it was the color and texture in the sky and "rule of thirds" for the horizon line that I was thinking about when I took this shot. I have some tighter crops, but they just didn't work for me. The pano crop with a 50/50 (more or less) horizon line is another take that would works too. Just goes to show that some rules were made to be broken.

Yep agree.
Just my taste, is less sky. None the less. I like your image.
Reminds me of the North Western hills of Maui.

Gorgeous light, and wonderful sensual curves. I do like how in Matt's crop the bottom layer of 'messy' flowers is eliminated, but I would keep the full extent of the sky - it feel less claustrophobic.

The light is really nice and lends to the forms of the land. Nice work. The pan Matt posted looks good to.

Great sky, and perfect light.

Russell,

The strength of this image for me is the wonderful, soft and warm light striking the hills and the gradients of color as well. The crop certainly is viable, but I think it loses the open feeling which also helps accentuate the soft light. I think this is wonderful.

My only nit is the purple coloration in part of the clouds. Just seems a bit off to me going from blues to purple and the right to gray. Not a big deal as I'm really enjoying this one.

Lon

Lovely, I really like the light on the hills/fg. The sky is also very nice, both crops work for me.

The scene is beautiful. The light on the hills and dark clouds above make for a very dramatic image. I'd opt also to crop a shade off the bottom of the image. You might also go for a less severe crop to the sky as proposed to give a panoramic look to this (but not because the sky detracts in any way). Glad you got a chance to break away to capture this scene.

I love it as is. The suggested pano is a nice alternative, but a completely different photo. I love the open comp of your original - and the range of color. A lot of style here, which completely works for me. I even really like the harsher details along the bottom edge, which stylishly "frames" the image. I get it ... and I appreciate the breaking the rules aspects.

Hey guys, thanks for all the comments. Lots of good insight into the creative process brought out here. Lon, I agree on that purple tinge. It isn't in my Lightroom version or in the print I made. Must be a translation issue.