Emergence with crop repost

I took this last night just at sunset. I love the green just starting to show, and the springtiime sky for sunset. Good shooting days ahead!

Critiques and comments always welcome, and thank you for looking.

Morris

Just the right touch of detail in the mid-ground, Morris. This is very, very appealing! The absolute foreground is kind of dark and devoid of detail, so I could almost see doing away with most of it, but leaving just enough to frame those lush greens.

Care to share you exposure/workflow technique?.

Sure, Todd, and thank you. I pondered a crop, and I guess it will work to just below the green pine on the left, maybe, but not any higher because it might be problematic then? I also feel the dead leaves on the oaks repeat the color in the sky.
It's a manual blend of 2 exposures that were 3 stops apart. I adjusted with curves, levels, added a touch of sat, saved as a tiff. Re-opened, converted to Srgb, and had to start all over again

I have to say i like the dark fg, looks very natural and the detail is great. The whole shot is great for me!

The expanse of foreground is a bit much, and there are no real lead-in lines, but I couldn't get any higher, and I couldn't get any closer. I did take some pano shots with the oaks eliminated, and I will be working on that to see if I got them to where they will work.

I like the touch of rust coloured leaves in the fg, I don't think it's too dark but you could crop some maybe. The semi green grass is a sure sign of Spring!. Very nicely composed Morris!.

Good eye Morris. I like the images soft greens, rust and blues. The hills are pleasant to look at and the foreground is fine to me.

In terms of comments I find myself getting stuck a bit on the left hand side as my eyes wander around. The pine tree in the foreground is a little too left and the high contrast between the rocky outcroppings and sunset pull the eyes over. I feel a need to step to the viewer's left a couple of steps and see if the composition improved any, but that might not be possible..

Thanks Steven. I actually had to crop a small part off of the left side. There were some bigger pines that intruded in from that side. Stepping left was not an option for me either unfortunately. I had quite a bit of growth all around me limiting my options.

I like it, nice serene feeling. I could see a slight crop from the bottom but the fg works for me. I like the color of the dead leaves. Makes me wish I could get out and shoot!

Very nice, Morris. Just enough light and detail in the foreground. I like your initial crop idea up to the little pine tree in the lower left.

You know, it must be my CRT monitor, but I can hardly make out any of those foreground leaves/details you included. With that as the case, I stand corrected.

Nice image and great color, Morris. I can barely make out detail in the FG on my LCD display. I'd recommend cropping some and lightening what you keep.

Lovely image, with very rich colors that draw me in visually. Very subtle reds in the foregrounds really add interest.

I like this a lot Morris. Where did you take this shot?

Jack

Very pretty scene Morris.

Quite a difference between Denver and Colorado Springs in the green department right now. Hopefully in a week or two we'll start to turn that corner. The recent moisture should certainly help!

Mel-

Todd, it's not entirely your monitor, obviously, as the save for web conversion did darken the shot as presented here. The detail is there in the file. I hope it looks better in my dark office tonight.
Jack, I took it on the road from Sedalia up into the foothills. I have wanted a shot from there for years, but always forgot to go there when the conditions were pretty good.

O.k. here goes, another attempt to try to outguess the effects of uploading a shot.
Let me know what you think of the crop.

I like the crop Morris, it now has just enough of the rusty leaves in the fg to frame the rest of the scene. I also like the added brightness to the fg, but I think I prefer the top half a little darker .

I like the crop on the second photo, but the sky exposure on the first. In either case, however, it is an outstanding shot.

Third times a charm?

Looks really good. A little pixelized here but I am certain it is fine in your final. Very nice shot.

RichieV

Third time was the charm!
I was going to echo Nick's thoughts but you were too quick!

A lovely scene...you did a fine job in capturing it.

Yup, the third one does it for me! Very nice...

I love the Spring green here. Great color Morris! Third time is a charm.

Great shot Morris. I personally like the first version.

Morris, nice shot. I am also a fan of the first version. I like more of the rust color in the first image and the drama of the darker image.