hiking trail

Welcome to NPN, Gerald.

I like the warm light contrasting with the cool tones in the shadow areas. These forest scenes are hard to capture.

Here are a few suggestions. I am making the assumption based on your title that you wanted to use the hiking trail as a leading line into the scene. I think that the trail would have more impact as an element in the scene if you had more of the trail included in the foreground of the composition and use it as a line to lead the viewer's eye through the scene.

Also, because of the dynamic range in this scene this was a difficult scene to process and I see that you used HDR software. However, the HDR software seems to have had a difficult time where the tree leaves and branches are contrasted against the blue sky. There appears to be significant color fringing and artifacts present here.

I'm certainly not an expert in blending images but I know that a lot of NPN photographers use manual blends to handle these kinds of scenes as it gives you more precise control. If you are interested I would recommend a few resources from a couple of NPN photographers that I have found to be very helpful. 1) Tony Kuyper offers tutorials and photoshop actions for luminosity masks here, and 2) Sean Bagshaw offers photoshop tutorials here. Sean's tutorial "Processing for Extended Dynamic Range" would help you address blending multiple exposures for a complex scene such as this. I am sure that there are a number of resources available - I just mention these because I have purchased them and find them to be very helpful. (As a side note I don't receive any benefit for recommending these resources.)

Thank you Brian for your suggestions,as a beginner I truly appreciate the post.

The colors here are a bit different (purple aspen trunks), but the contrasting colors also add interest. I've walked in settings like this, but your images makes me think about what I'm seeing in new ways.

Gerald, you're welcome. Although I have been shooting for a while now and can see progress in my own work I still have a lot to learn. This is a great group of photographers here and you can learn a lot from them. Also don't be shy about posting comments on others images. With the talent level on this forum it can be intimidating for beginner or even intermediate level photographers. Even if you don't feel like you have much to add about technical aspects of a photograph you can comment on the more subjective aspects of a photograph. I have learned a lot from not only viewing the work of photographers whose work I enjoy but also reading the comments from others and ultimately posting my own comments. I have found that it helps me be more deliberate about choices that I make in the field about composition or technique. But most importantly as you learn more don't lose sight of what draws you to photography in the first place - the sheer enjoyment of it. I look forward to seeing more posts from you.