Larch World

Here's one from White Pass in late October. My wife thought the pattern of the trees in the top third looked like an alien from Roswell!

Oh this does not help the cabin fever at all
I can't say I'm too enthralled about the composition (pretty flat, no sense of scale), but the color is strong enough to keep my attention. The shadows in the distant part of the photo (from the bottom of the talus slopes to the top of the frame) are pretty heavily muddied though. Either too much fill light or too much Highlight / Shadow recovery on the shadow side.

Yeah Bryan, I agree it looks pretty flat. It was heading toward late afternoon, but the light was still pretty harsh. I was mostly the pattern and color scheme that persuaded me to click the shutter. Here's the shot with a little more contrast and backlight, it might have made a slight improvement.

Hi Joe, yup the second image does have a bit more pop! I love the textures/shapes/colors on this. I think we can all "see" what you were going for here. I certainly would enjoy "being there"!!

I can definately see what you were going for! If the light were a little less harsh it would have made a big difference. I might try warming up some of the shadowy areas. And the top third looks like there was too much of the fill light tool used. Maybe darken up the shadows a little in the top third? Either way, I bet the detail is fun to look at when viewed at a large size!

The second image is certainly an improvement, but there is still a strong blue hue to the shadows in the distance. I've run into this problem several times myself - it becomes an issue because in cases like this, the shadows can actually fall more into the midtone range than the shadow range, so adjusting the shadows doesn't help much.

Your'e right about the shadows Bryan, a lot of the shadows are midtone. It makes sense now as to why I'm having such a hard time getting that blue out of there.
Ryan, it definitely looks better larger. My camera is only 6mp, but downsizing for the web is still killing a lot of the texture and detail.
Well, never say die, here's a third version. I don't think I can get it perfect, but I think this is somewhat of an improvement. I removed as much blue as possible and selectively added more contrast. Thanks everyone for the feedback.

MUCH better.
(thought to be nit picky, I think you got rid of the blues just a teeny bit too much, now it looks overly yellow )

Love the lighting on all of those trees!

Wow that's a lot of larch! That looks like a great place to go back and explore compositions next fall. I agree that the last photo is a much better job of PP.

This was right on the east side of White Pass, John. There's a parking area with a trail that follows the cliff line (fenced, as there's a pretty impressive drop off!) There's also a waterfall that drops off of the cliffs. Didn't get any decent pics of it, as it was in shadow. I'd like to return when the light is better. Might even be nice in the spring when the larch are sporting their new bright green needles. There's definitely a lot of larch!
Bryan, you twisted my arm. Here's a fourth version with some of the blue restored.

a nice shot...I would use levels to tighten it up a bit.......