Pastoral

I found myself in the wrong location at sunrise this morning to photograph the amazing eastern sky, so I put my tail between my legs and headed home. I decided to stop by one of my favorite local views and just really liked the light. The formations are on Hall Ranch in Lyons.
Any and all critiques are welcome.
Paul
Update: In the interest of full disclosure, I used the spot healing brush with content aware fill to clone out a distracting weed in the LLC. Content aware fill is some scary good stuff.

I love it! Beautiful composition, nice soft light, excellent post-processing. I like your choice to include the grass meadow prominently in the foreground as it adds to the pastoral sense of the scene.

I've often wanted to spend some time down there and get something like this. I really think you did a great job with it. The repeating hills, the contrast between the grass and the rock and the grassy foreground all work together really well. If I was to change anything I might have tried to move the camera to the right so that the left side of the photo ends right where the hill comes down as the inclination of the hill on the left sort of pulls the eye out of the frame. That might just be more of my own personal approach rather than anything that you should take too seriously.

I knew instantly that this was around Lyons, but I have NEVER seen such a beautiful photo from anywhere around there. Absolutely stunning, Paul. "Pastoral" is quite apt, and the layers in this are really, really nice.

That's a gorgeous shot of Hall Ranch!!! Very easy on the eyes.

What an apt title...this is simply gorgeous!
The soft light, beautiful skies and those sublime bluffs are just too sweet. Almost like a painting!
This is one of the better landscape images I've seen, Paul.

This is very beautiful. I'd personally saturate the colors a bit more, but that's just me. Thanks for posting.

Very nice shot. Definitely pleasing greens of spring against the rocks.

Have been there and hiked around. Had thought about what it might take to get a nice image from the area, but had not been highly motivated to return and try. Your image definitely bumps the desire to go and give it a try - especially since it is so close.

Very pleasing. Almost seems to have a glow to it. My instinct is naturally with Momo's about adding more saturation, and I wouldn't mind seeing such a version, but I think the lighter, pastel approach here works too.

Wonderfull light. I like the exposure and saturations just as you have them.

Man have you motivated me to stop and shoot this area next time through. It has always intrigued me, but I usually just want to get back home. Perfect title and the light and color are gorgeous.

Well seen! I pass by this kind of scene all the time and a shot like this reminds me I need to open my eyes more. Thanks!

Real 'pastoral', Paul!

Thanks for the comments, everyone. Erik, I'm with you on the inclination issue. That's a pet peeve of mine, but I was having a hard time with it here due to compositional concerns and the fact that trees were preventing me from moving sideways.

Beautiful scene Paul! Really nice processing, I liked that you didn't over-saturate the image, the tones you presented are quite nice.

Beautiful light and image, such a great location. I got a really beautiful sunset there once, I'll see if I can find it when I have my computer working again.