Color, or B&W??

Have finally gone through my Zion shots. Here's a shot (that Rene might recognize) taken of some maples near Hidden Canyon, during a light rain. I thouhgt it might make a neat B&W, which enabled me to boost the contrast. Now im stumped--which do you feel is the more successful image??

Here's the B&W (a crop of the color)

Wow! I like them both but you know me I LOVE B&W! Realy nice Stan! Nice comp and tonality! Uh.... whats a maple?
John

I solidly prefer the B&W here Stan. The color version is just too much red, and the glare on the leaves is distracting. But I love the range of tones in the B&W, and I get much more sense of depth from it.

BW. You can actually pick out more of the individual leaves.

Absolutely black and white! The black and white version has an emotion and character that the color version lacks.

It looks like a clear consensus for the B&W, thanks guys, thats what i wanted to know!
I slightly preferred it but i thought the two were a bit closer.

Love the colors but the B/W has better detail.

RichieV

Another vote for the BW, Stan. The tighter crop also works better than the color crop. Having said that, I do like the slight spot lighting effect in the color version. (Maybe you vignetted?)

Another vote for the B&W. The color is nice, but isn't compelling. The B&W has much more depth and the shades of grey make it much more interesting, espcially compositionally.

The color one just looks like a jumble of red, whereas the b&w version has definition and distinction across the frame. I'd add even a little more contrast, maybe make the higher tones a little lighter. Just a touch, though.

I also added a version in the Photo Art Gallery
Thanks for the comments, everyone!

I have to go with the B&W version. I find I'm looking closer at the details with a lot to discover.

B+W

BW