Candy Cliffs Sunrise

Candy Cliffs, near St George, UT is a interesting place, but I found it somewhat difficult to shoot.
Bluebird skies really created a lot harsh light as one can imagine.
With the right light, this place could be magical.

Looks to me like you did a lot with the hand you were dealt. I like the way you juxtaposed the foreground, with its large-scale pattern, against the background, which looks like it has the same pattern, only rendered smaller because it's further away.

Seems you got some nice warm late afternoon light though and the shadows helped bring out the patterns nicely. Really nice comp, I like your use of the foreground. I've never heard of this area, might be worth a look next time I'm in the area.

Even with the blue sky, this is a nice image.

Got me exploring... heh had I seen this earlier I might have wandered up there with all the snow clouds working to the east.

Hi Ken, I really like your composition here, the larger image is a must view. I might move the saturation slider back a notch, otherwise beautiful image.

You had some great light to work with. I would suggest a crop right below the lowest portion of the sky. This places more emphasis on the lines, curves and color.

You caught some nice warm sunlight. One suggestion might be to brush in some local/midtone contrast to the middle slope to bring out the stripes. This looks like a nice area to play with the lines and textures on the compositions.

I've never been there but it appears to have lots of potential under the right lighting conditions. The warm light in this shot is very inviting to the eye!

Nice light Kane - beautiful image.

Thanks mucho for the comments. Doug, yea, I would like to bring out those strips, but couldn't easily separate them out using luminosity masks. Once this early morning glow was gone, then yellowish rock in this image was much more subtle and a light tan. That situation brought out the stripes quite well, but then the contrast was just too extreme for my tastes. I do believe some filtered light through clouds would benefit any photography in this area, unless one is seeking a sunrise and sunset glow.

Beautiful image Ken. Love the comp on this image. I personally might tone down the saturation in the sky mostly.

I went out here for the first time last week and loved the area but, like you, I found it tough to shoot. I'm already planning a return trip on which I'll spend a day or two camping out there. Your image is quite nice and certainly made good use of the sweet light.