Glowing Arch at night

This was taken Friday night at Mesa Arch with Scott Bacon who I want to thank again for letting me use your light to paint this rock, it did a much better job then my flash did, "Thank you". This was created in one frame and I painted the foreground and Arch with a fairly powerful light Scott had. This was my first attempt at night photography and light painting, so I'm curious what others think of it. One big advantage to shooting at night is that you have the whole Arch to yourself.

This smaller version image really doesn't do the sky justice, looks much better in a larger version to see detail in the stars.

Canon 5D MarkII
Canon 17-40mm f/4L @ 19mm
ISO1600 @ f/5.6 for 25 sec

I like the evenness of the lighting of the arch (not easy with a big lamp) and the stars behind. Not sure about the comp though, maybe shoot an arch like delicate arch with the stars underneath? With this shot you don't get the great impression of space below and behind the arch that you get with a daylight shot. Commendable work though.

It's different than the usual Mesa Arch comps we've all seen and this is definitely a successful first attempt at lightpainting. As Bill mentioned, the lighting is pretty even, I wouldn't mind seeing a little warmer color balance though. I agree that from this distance the space between ground and arch is lessened quite a bit, but I know how difficult it is to get the whole arch in one frame. Perhaps a more panoramic crop might suit it?

Hey Eric,
Looks pretty cool.
Along the lines of Josh's comment - I think I'd prefer a less harsh lighting of the arch (or warmer color).
But I'm ignorant of light painting and night shots like this so take that with a grain of salt.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, I wasn't all that excited with it so I did total rework of the image starting in RAW. I cropped it some, I didn't like the dark side on right and thought there was a touch to much foreground. I pulled out a lot more stars in the sky, warmed up the WB and did some dodging and burning on the arch to darken it and decrease the overall contrast. I think it is an improvement, but I am curious what others think?

Eric, this is cool! And it sure was a fun evening. I love the colored pin prick look of the stars against that Utah-black night sky.

I hope my shots come out half this good.

The comp doesn't do much for me, Eric, but I love that sky. For a first attempt, I'd say you succeeded.

I like the repost better. Cool shot, and good work on the processing.