Some B&W Images...

I have been renovating my house in Denver for the last few months getting ready to sell it, and finally a couple weeks ago it sold so now I'm officially a Colorado Springs resident, at least for a few months....

I haven't been out anywhere in a long time but went through the archives and found a few images I wanted to try a B&W conversion on and would greatly appreciate your critiques on them.

This first one is sunrise from my house in Colorado Springs

#2 Sunset, Cheyenne Mountain

#3 Smuggler Creek (I think), Aspen, CO

#4 Oak Tree Shadow, Malibu Canyon, CA

Number 1 has a little too much contrast for my tastes.
Number 2 doesn't have quite enough to hold my attention.
Number 3 has nice action in the water. It looks like it suffers from jpeg compression.
Number 4 is exquisite!

Scott, #1 if freaking off the hook. I get Mark's comment about contrast, however I don't think it's too far off from being as good as it gets. #4 is stunning as well. Are you doing you B&W's in photoshop?

These are all absolutely fantastic. #1 is pure drama. #4 is pure art. Love 'em. Just love 'em!

All of these rock, Scott! Such a diverse set, no way to pick a favorite.
I like #1 for the beams and it's epic scale. #2 for the fabulous mood and mystery, #3 for the 3 dimensional feel, and #4 for your use of lines, shadow, and light. Anyone who has not visited your website needs to do so asap. Wonderful work throughout, and the Iceland gallery is particularly excellent. I am as crazy about "Beach rock and Seaweed" as I still am about "Last Dollar IV" from last year.

Thank you everybody for your comments so far!

Kane, I'm doing the B&W's with Silver Efex Pro 2.

I like #1 the best, but they are all very creative. Great work Scott.

The light rays in #1 show up very well. I like the high contrast more each time I look at the image. Would you like it with the land cropped completely off and just have the sky?
#3 appears a little crunchy. This image has the most interest to me with the flow over the lichen-covered rock.
#4 Nice shadow forms and well seen.

All are very good but, #4 is my fav, and #1 could be if you could coax some detail out of the bottom.

"These are all absolutely fantastic. #1 is pure drama. #4 is pure art. Love 'em. Just love 'em!

Well, I just have to agree with Bret here. #2 isn't quite working for me. I like #3 quite a bit, but the 'crunchiness' noted above is a bit offputting. I assume this only appears on the web version.

Thank you everybody for your comments. Doug, I did look at your suggestion for cropping off the bottom of #1, but it isn't working for me without it. #3 is "crunchy", it appears I overdid the sharpening on the web version. Don, I think I can get a little more detail out of the bottom on #1, there is actually some detail there now, just a little hard to see at this scale. Unfortunately I didn't bracket shots and was shooting straight into the sun, it appears my brain doesn't work that early in the morning...

As others mentioned 1 and 4 are the cream. I also really like the flow in the come in three, I do wish there was a little more room at the top.

Nice set - #4 is my fav.