"A Grand Setting"

I went on a photo run over Christmas to New Years. Have a few "off topic" shots (Death Valley, etc) but wanted to start lobbing a few out here. I got this one maybe 15 minutes after technical sunset at the south rim. Good, Bad, or Ugly? CC welcome as always. Thanks, Josh.

I like it, Joshua. The cloudscape and the colors create a special kind of mood I don't recall seeing of the Canyon before. I don't believe I'd change a thing about it.

Joshua, the light & interior of the canyon set a nice mood, but for me, the finger of land sticking out from the left foreground just doesn't add to the composition. Maybe if you'd been out on the point there?

Beautiful light and great weather conditions! As Monika noted, I would much rather see more of the canyon under those conditions than the almost intrusiive foreground.

Yeah I pretty well botched my brief visit to the South Rim. I got there shortly before sunset, the roads were closed going west and east from the visitors center from the storm, and I'd never been there, so I didn't have a clue on hiking distances. It was also extremely cold (single digits), so I kinda gave up and ran for heat. Anyone have a time machine handy? It sucks because the conditions ended up great, and I was just in a bad spot.

Hi Josh, you seem to be giving up on this one. I'm cool with the finger of foreground on the left. In fact, I think it adds very nice depth. But there seems to be too much sky, almost the subject of the image... and not quite enough Grand Canyon. The sky is to die for, but in the end, we all just want the sky to enhance our amazing subject. You didn't drive all that way to shoot awesome sky right? Easier said than done; I get that because I'm as guilty as anyone. Subject is easy, the rest are details that make the difference.

I'm just frustrated. We have all had many times where we go out and the weather just gives nothing to work with. This time the conditions were sweet, but I didn't capitalize on it's full potential here. I was cold and bailed. It makes me mad at myself. I do have a earlier shot that has a look deeper into the canyon. I'll post it in a new thread so I can put up a 1200px version of it.

Good! slightly tilted

Joshua, have you tried a 4x5 crop? Playing with it on a screenshot, I think it helps quite a bit, getting rid of a lot of that foreground finger and isolating the main cloud so that it becomes more of a subject in its own right. It's still not perfect perhaps, but I like the purple, wintry mood of this one a lot, and the crop could go a long way.

I also think the foreground actually helps bring the viewer into the scene, otherwise that fantastic sky might have dominated just a little too much. If you do any cropping, take some from the left side and leave the right alone. Overall, I love the color of the image except for the snow, which I might selectively, with layers, take a little blue and magenta out of to warm it up a bit. Clone out those dust bunnies on the upper right and in the middle of the big cloud, slightly to the right too.