On the Precipice

After celebrating Christmas withe the family in Phoenix, I headed north to Alstrom Point in hopes of high clouds or earth shadow for sunset. A prior trip had yielded predominantly overcast skies. The brown haze over the basin from the Page coal-fired power plant was disheartening to see.

#1 Pano comprised of 6 vertical images merged in PSE9.
As always, suggestions on composition and processing are welcome.

#2 Cove on the other side of the point taken the next evening. The PS tool for "boats-be-gone" was used. May need to paint out the brown sky scum still.

#3 I liked the light coming down across the buttes on the other side of the lake. Single image cropped.

#4 Might a very slight crop on the left be beneficial to shift the lighted edge more to left?
(Last one)

Stunning! Those first three rock the house, Doug. I don't think you need to crop the last one, it's solid as is.

They're all very nice. Well done!

Great images Doug!!! I think the first one would be my favorite if the water wasn't cut off at the bottom, so the second one in this series gets bumped up to my first place. It is gorgeous! Your third image is really sweet too! The last one is't grabbing me quite as much but those first three are really beautiful. Great work Doug!

Thank you for the feedback. The pano #1 is close to 50/50, but whether I cropped from the top or bottom, the 50/50 seemed better.

Wonderful color Doug!

Great series Doug. One of my missions is to shoot alstrom point sometime this year. The sky in the first one is incredible. The brown haze doesn't even seem noticeable in that one. The second one it is a little more evident but nothing I would worry too much about. Wondering if there's still plenty of snow up in flag besides snowbowl?

I really love 1 and 2. I think I like 4 a tad more than 3 and think its a close call whether to make the crop there as you suggest. It certainly works the way you have it!

Peter, A lot of the snow around the house has melted to start showing bare ground. Maybe the forecasted storm this coming weekend will bring some mere snow. Regarding Alstrom, pay attention to the lake level. Before runoff hits in summer to raise the lake level, the drawdown for power and Lake Mead may expose a large flat at the end of Gunsight Point (it can be seen on google earth). This last fall, it was the highest it has been in 10 years, iirc.

I am hoping you get some snow up there so I can get some winter shots in. I will keep my eye on lake level reports, I don't know if I'll be up there anytime soon, but definitely sometime this year. Thanks for the info!

Wow, great stuff. Love all of them.

Nice! Really like the pano!

Beautiful images all. Love the cloud color on the first two, looks like the return trips have been worth it! The haze is not perceivable on the first and very minimal on the second. I probably wouldn't have noticed it at all if you hadn't described it in your post. Love the panoramic too, that's some interesting terrain there.

Cool shots! Really like 2 and 4!