Bentonite

Great use of layering, this works well for me! And now I learned what bentonite was, so thanks for that as well. That stuff certainly has a nice structure.

This looks real nice, Harley. The texture in the bentonite look great. I like the increasing softness of the layers and the detail in the background.

--P

The nice thing about abstracts is the sense of scale is lost.  This has nice form and diagonals.  I like the layers and how it flows from    Focus to OOF to dark though the dark does seem a little noisy.  Our two images ( my ice shot) and yours were taken with the same lens model; the granularity is similar.

The sense of depth is excelllent, and the subtle changes in lighytr work well too. I would have tried for a somehwat greater depth of field, perhaps the second layer in focus too, but this also works for me.

David, what looks like noise is actually the textures in the shadowed bentonite. I drilled down on the 200MB master file at 100% and I did not see noise (shot at ISO 64). It sure does look like noise at web size. 

I love the way this is layered in multiple ways; exposure, tone and detail. Not just another "pretty" photograph but one that makes me linger and mentally peruse the entire frame...very interesting...great shot.

Harley, thanks about the noise issue.  One of my current postings on M&N at iso 100 also looks noisy in the FG.  JPEG compression?

Harley,

Not something many folks would ever see, let alone photograph.  Great eye and vision on this.  What works so well for me is how the layers of focus, light and contrast all coincide.

What's missing for me, and what I'm imagining, is for the head of a lizard or snake to pop up behing the first ridge... 

What? They allow hubble space photos on this site.
I like this for the graphical qualities and for making me try to figure it all out. I believe that the OOF areas contribute to the mystery.
Jim