As the clouds thinned, there was beautiful diffuse light on the rocks and snow at Badlands, and endless photo opportunities, which made it worth being out in the 20-degree weather with howling winds.
5DII, 24-105 @ 60
f/8, 1/250s, ISO200
TK curves adjustments
Here’s an edited version based on comments.
This is just fantastic…love the brown & white color palette! Excellent balance of compositional elements and the foreground is just perfect with just the right amount of grass and ground to imagine standing right there. The left and right hillsides do well to frame the peak in the middle. I’d be tempted to crop the tiniest bit on the L side to reveal only the descending part of the left hill to balance and reflect the hill on the right. The luminance and contrast look great as well. A very successful image to my eye! Thanks for sharing.
Wow Craig, what a productive trip to Badlands this was for you, the hits just keep on coming. I love the soft light, and your processing of it here, the image has such a calm, gentle feeling. Luckily you had the Goldilocks amount of snow “just right” to still show interesting textures and features in the badlands formations. Very effective use of the foreground in your composition too. No nits from me, I’m enjoying this image as presented.
I love it coming back with something decent taken in rough weather! 
This looks great. I don’t see the brown/white color combination much, it looks fantastic! Nice soft contrasts showcasing the nice winter light.
I agree with @Jim_McGovern about trying a crop from the left, removing some of the hill up to the change in angle?
Yes, the brown/white combination looks really nice together, and the images in @Craig_Moreau recent series from Badlands NP have taken great advantage of this color pairing. It creates some nice looking contrast for sure.
This is excellent, Craig. As others have mentioned the color palette is gorgeous. I like your composition but agree with @Jim_McGovern on his crop suggestions. I also might try and coax a bit more contrast out of the sky to bring out those cloud layers.
This turned out really well, Craig. I would second Dave and Jim’s suggestions, but not a biggie. Very enjoyable viewing and love the understated colors.
Thanks @Jim_McGovern, @Ed_McGuirk, @Ron_Jansen, @Dave_Dillemuth and @Harley_Goldman!
I’ve posted an edited version up top.
Jim, good catch on the crop. I think that works well, especially since it was a very small crop.
Ed, yes it was a pretty productive trip. Lots of varied scenery and unique conditions for October.
Dave, I worked to get a little more contrast out of the sky. When I did that, it brought out some color on the right, but there was basically no color on the left. I painted in some color on the left to try to even it out a bit. Hopefully that worked.
The stark drama of the landscape works well with your description of the frigid temps! I prefer your edit; nice job with the sky.
