This was one of those lucky circumstances where I was driving in the dark to meet up with a buddy on a cloudy morning and suddenly the sky went off. I was fortunate to be in a higher spot (my buddy was down below and a little to the right, he showed up in a few of my other images and I did not even know he was out there). I grabbed my camera and ran to set up. The light was coming in and out and lasted a while, highlighting different areas is very different light. It was fun.
D850, 70-200
Lucky you, Harley to have caught this at just the right moment. Love the lovely soft yellow/gold color of the hills and the horizontal lines in the clouds. Very nicely seen and captured.
I almost don’t care for the earth part of this image because the sky is just so good. It looks like one of those scenes in Independence Day. The play between the lighter and the darker tone and the hue on the sky… ominous almost.
The only nit: There are some dust spots on the sky 
Purely sublime, Harley. Great opportunity to catch this. The sky is incredible. What was your exposure? It looks a little like a longish exposure.
Well done.
Harley,
Love that sky and the color you presented here! As @Adhika_Lie mentioned the land is not the star of this show.
Good catch on your part!
Excellent catch, Adhika! There were a shocking amount and some were really hard to find. I must have skipped that step in my excitement to work on this one. Thanks for your great eyes.
The intensity of the storm light here is wonderful. The wide range in contrast across the scene is very eye-catching. I agree with the other comments that the sky is marvelous. But I also like the “contrast layer cake” that you have in the landscape (midtones on top, highlights in the middle, and deep shadow on the bottom). It’s rare that you see such significant contrast in such narrow bands like this, and that helps sets this image apart for me.
The processing looks perfect to me, don’t change a thing, other than Adhika’s dust spots 
Hoo Ha! Fantastic, Harley. The horizontality of this image is just amazing in that it still has incredible depth. I love how the shadow at the bottom bumps up on either side to frame the light. Beautifully composed.
