Cosmic Rings

The formations on this boulder and landscape sorta resembled cosmic rings and lines. I took this to 10mm to emphasize the fg. This left only a sliver of sky, which I feel needs to stay there for sense of place. What do you think?

I think the light is pretty harsh....

early morning or late afternoon with some sunset or sunrise color would work best...

maybe a slightly different angle....could you have set up so that your looking right up between those 2 rocks in the foreground?

I love the overall look of this one Rick, and agree with you on the sliver of sky (that's what I would have done). I agree with Jesse though, it's hard to get past the shadow because the coolest part of the photo is right in it. Lighting from the opposite direction would be perfect.

I did one of these rings in the morning, Rick, when the light was a lot less harsh. I like the idea but I can't get past the light.

I don't think the light is too harsh at all - it helps to set off the odd shapes of the rock and casts more interesting shadows. The sky bugs me more than anything else, I'd either crop it out completely, which looks to me like that wouldn't leave enough breathing room above the two pinnacles in the midground, or leave more of it in to balance out the colors a bit.

I agree that the sky needs to be there for this comp, but it's such a small sliver that it's a bit distracting. I think just a scoche more would lend a little better balance, or perhaps a more intimate comp that excluded the sky entirely and emphasized the rings even more?

I'd loose the sky and focus more on the rocks.... strong shadows seem okay on this for me...