Red Thunder

Wow, 2400 ft difference in elevation, it certainly does not look like that! You succeeded well in hiding the GND effect in the tree, which is sometimes very obvious. The mountains in the BG capturing the last bit of light is really nice!

Nice old whitebark pine and lovely light. You did a nice job with the grad. The color looks very natural.

--P

Well found and processed.

Lovely light, Dave

I have looked at this image for a little while and it has a lot of good qualities. Very nice light and color, the tree is interesting as well as the mountain. The only thing I am struggling with is is the tree and the mountain competing with each other as a center of interest. My eye did not know where to go. I kept gong back and forth from the tree to the mountain. There might be two or more images here. This is a very beautiful place and looks like it would be worth shooting many times.

You have some beautiful light on the tree and on the background peak. However, I find the composition to be a bit chaotic for my tastes. I don't mean for that to sound harsh, but it just feels like it is lacking a well defined subject. I understand the overall landscape is the subject, but there are too many competing elements that seem to have equal weight. For example, by placing the peak in the center of the frame you have given it a prominent position in the composition which is further enhanced by the alpenglow. At the same time, the foreground tree holds a lot of visual weight due to it's size and prominence in the composition.

For my tastes (and this is subjective), I would propose one of two alternatives. First of all, if the broader landscape is your intended subject, I would recommend moving closer to the greenery on the rock behind that tree and see if you could get a shot of the peaks using that as a foreground element. It would be more of a complementary foreground where as the tree seems to compete for my attention. Alternatively, if the tree is the subject, I would recommend finding a way to isolate the tree by stepping back if possible and using a longer focal length lens combined with a larger aperture to blur the background in order to create separation between the tree and the background. I hope you find this to be helpful and I want to emphasize that it's certainly not meant to be harsh.

EDIT: I hadn't read Richard's comment before posting my comment. I guess I'm not the only one to see this.

Robust composition: perfect tree position. And well controlled (vivid but not flat) colours.
Very convincing for my tastes.
All the best,
sandro

I certainly appreciate each and every comment... that's why I hang out here of course! The last thing I want really is a bunch of Flickr-style, always positiive feedback.

Richard and Brian have made compelling arguments for a simplified composition which creates a better center of interest and I can certainly relate and take that into the field with me in the future. Not much that can be done at this point as I don't see a crop that will achieve that centering.

In my defense, I was concentrating on the light display of the Granite Fire post when I looked behind me, saw the last light on the peak, wheeled the camera around, snapped off a shot without a lot of care to be honest and then went back to the other direction. I tend to be a bit frenetic when I'm outdoors with a camera in good light, especially when I get some fairly rare Sierra summer cloud.

You said, "In my defense, I was concentrating on the light display of the Granite Fire post when I looked behind me, saw the last light on the peak, wheeled the camera around, snapped off a shot without a lot of care to be honest and then went back to the other direction. I tend to be a bit frenetic when I'm outdoors with a camera in good light, especially when I get some fairly rare Sierra summer cloud."

I know I have done that. I know of a particular night with a beautiful sunset at Dallas Divide, that I messed up the focus on my images and came away with nothing worth showing (on my memory card that is - I still remember the night well). It happens to the best of us. I know I certainly have a lot to learn as well.

You did a nice job on everything but were too close to the tree for me.
probably nothing you could do ....