5DII, 24-105 @ 60
Foreground: f/11, 0.8s, ISO100
Sky: f/11, 1/5s, ISO100
UPDATE: based on feedback, I lightened the foreground and cropped to break the 50/50 composition.
Magnificent. The colors are outstanding. Must be wonderful to have such a backyard. Are those trees on top of highest rock outcrop or something manmade?
Thanks Jim. It was a wonderful backyard for the 3 nights we were there. A lovely place. Those are trees.
Great sky and I like the foreground. The mixture of autumn foliage and rocky outcrops is nice.
It’s great as is. The only thing I can suggest is to maybe spotlight foliage/ rocky area a touch
Craig, what a beautiful place and the light is gorgeous. I am a little torn about the 50-50 composition here and mainly because the most interesting parts of this image to me are the trees and the rock formation. As is, though, it feels like they get very little real estate in the image. Other than that, I would echo @Nathan_Klein’s suggestion about dodging the trees just a little more.
Craig, this is really wonderful light and the colors look spot on to me. This area of the country is under appreciated for it’s scenery IMO, and you did it justice with this image. I agree with @Adhika_Lie and am undecided about the 50-50 composition but I would be hard pressed to crop that sky.
Well done!
Craig,
That is one killer sky! Gorgeous. The tree(s) on the top of the rock that Jim points out are a cool bonus to this image - despite their tiny size.
I’m a bit with Adhika and Alan in both the 50/50 comp and the feeling like there could be so much more all the way around; more sky to take away the 50/50 or even a wider view that allows more of the landscape. I think your processing is excellent - well done give the time of day and sunset lighting conditions.
I’m wondering - how about cropping some right and some off the bottom; just enough to alter the 50/50 split. You lose some rock right/bottom but retain much of the fall color AND it actually brings the taller rock with the little tree, just a wee bit closer. That might not be your vision, but I think gives more room and presence for that grand sunset sky.
Beautiful for sure as presented.
Lon
Craig, the coordination between the color in the sky and the autumn leaves looks great. This is a beauty as presented. I like your comp. with it’s focus on the trees and foreground rock formations, supported well by the many ridges fading into the distance and (of course) that glorious sky.
Right behind the cabin huh, it doesn’t get much tougher than that 
As we’ve seen from the 50/50 and cropping suggestions, the challenge with this image is that there is an overabundance of good things. While the sky is spectacular, to me it’s the colors, shapes, and textures of the rocks and trees that make this image so engaging. The way the conifers and the aspens are sprinkled across the rock formations creates a lot of visual interest.
This image is pretty strong as presented, but I think with some tweaks it could be even stronger. It feels a tad dark for my taste. Some local dodging of highlights in the sky, and the trees in the foreground would further accentuate the most interesting elements in the image. I would especially dodge the sky near the horizon.
This is one of those images where the sky and land are both very interesting, so I can understand your use of the 50/50 split here. While this is very subjective, my personal preference would be to crop a sliver off the top, just enough to get off the 50/50. I would crop a bit above that band of cloud in the URC, leaving just a little blue above it.
You have a special image here Craig, its well worth investing the time to torque it up a bit.
Thanks @Nathan_Klein, @Adhika_Lie, @Alan_Kreyger, @Lon_Overacker, @Mark_Seaver and @Ed_McGuirk!
I did think this might be a little dark, so with your confirmation of that, I’ll work on lightening it up, particularly the foreground. I’ll play around with a crop, but I definitely had a hard time removing any of the sky or rocks and trees in the original processing. I do wish I could have included more foreground, but it was quite messy below this view.
Really liked the original; love the update.
