Canyon Cliffs

I know, not exactly NW material or fitting for December for that matter, but here it goes anyway. This is, of course, Zion National Park in Utah. You're looking up at a 1500 foot high sandstone face interspersed with Conifers and autumn foliage. Let me know if the composition/perspective here does anything for you. Thanks.

LOL!! I find myself feeling like I'm looking waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay up with this one!!!! I like it and the unique perspective works fine for me. Great colors too which certainly helps.

I too feel like I am looking up and up, but that is not a bad thing. There are two things that do it for me on this image. One is the wide range of color all processed well as usual, and the second is the good expsoure and use of DOF on the UL and UR on the BG walls which gives me the sense of depth in the overall piece. I wouldn't put it your favs but it's nice all around image!

I like it Marc. I'll second what Mr. Lamb stated...

Wow! I love this. One difference between this and many other good photos of hills/mts is that this has the trees going waaaay up to help provide an awesome sense of scale that otherwise would be missing. I might find it wonderful anyway, but IMO a very nice plus. Excellent color too.

I like this a lot also. I love the flow from top to bottom.... the colors are singing perfect also.... keep POSTING these all winter long if you want

This is a nice take on the canyons down there, as you usually don't see this perspective. Most photos are always focusing on the base of the canyon, not the walls themselves. It's great to see all that color that works its way out of the cliffs.
It might be my monitor, but the distant, sunlit rock face looks just a little dark. Lightening that up with a curves layer just on that bright face would add a bit more depth and make the middle ground trees at the top cliff stand out better. Otherwise I don't know what else to say as usual:)

Marc: I'm sorry but for once I disagree with everyone else regarding one of your fine works. Assuming you are attempting to create a sense of scale and grandeur, this image doesn't do it for me. The reason: I like the image per se, but I must make the inevitable comparisons with similar shots I've seen in the climbing magazines over the years. Having visited Zion, your image doesn't quite evoke the feelings I remember when looking up at the towers for the first time.

I agree with what Adrian said Marc. Wonderful color and interesting perspective, but it doesn't grab me quite as strong as some of your other work.

The colors and the looking up perspective like whats been discussed above really makes the image. It looks like there is some barrel distortion but i'm not sure if it's that big of a deal. It can easily be fixed if need be.

Marc, to me it's a winner... this image does do one thing that many images of this nature miss: it invokes the height feeling, almost a little dizzying. Others said this image doesn't reproduce what you see when you're there, but not having been there, the one thing I get out of it is the HEIGHT. So many times that not captured in an image. You asked about perspective, so for me, you hit it. It's BIG. Oh, great colors by the way.

I think portrait would've worked better since it would compliment the vertical feeling produced by the perspective. I like the colors but the comp doesn't do much for me, sorry.

Striking range of opinions here, folks. Either love it or hate it I guess. Michael, I did take a lot of portrait as well, but I feel the distortion effect works well here to give a sense of depth and height.

I'll split the middle here. I don't love it but I don't hate it either. On the Adamus scale of 1-10, I'd stick this somewhere around a 3 (which on everyone else's scale is around a 7 or 8). I really like the interplay of the red maple and the fir behind it, then the water stained cliffs leading upwards. Would like to see a vertical crop of about the right half to one-third of the image. Of course, the backlighting on the cliffs in the ULC is pastelly-good and I'd hate to see that left out.

Definitely get the dizzying feeling of height, here, Marc. If that was your goal, you hit it. I LOVE the colors in this! Have to say that for me, if I look at it for too long the perspective starts looking and feeling unpleasantly weird. No one else spoke of it, so maybe it's just me... The dark vertical line in the lower center has a stabilizing effect if I retreat there for a bit... I'm trying to imagine what effect looking at a huge print of this would be like. I think it could put me on the floor.