There’s a local funky, scary old road I like to drive in the Spring when the wildflowers are raging. I got some shots on that morning. Worth the death defying drive.
Does the survive even w/o cloning out the dark road patches?
D500, Nikon 18-200 lens, hand held, 40mm, ISO 720, cropped to 3712 x 5066
Hey Dave! I really like the concept of this photo and I think you’ve done a great job of leading through the photo using the pathway that goes from front to back. One thing I would suggest about the crop of this photo is to crop out the sky, because our eyes are naturally drawn to the brightest part of the photo so cropping that out would bring more attention to that path and the flowers on the left-hand side.
Having grown up in California, I love poppies, so that got my attention immediately, Dave. Does the image work without cloning out the dark road patches? I’m not sure. Perhaps some cropping as David suggested, so I did a quick crop/cloning and vibrance version for comparison. Hope you don’t mind?
Yes! That is working. An improvement. Thanks for your input.
Great scene. A long-ago California boy here, too. I remember roads like this – one was Breckenridge Road. The curved road is the element that carries me through the scene. As it stands, the road is pretty bright and textureless. I burned the darker areas which toned it down and provided a bit of texture.; more could be done. Also felt the desire to darken the light grasses and apply a vignette … all to make the road play a stronger role, relative to the bright flowers.
I really like the suggestions that have already been made to this, Dave. Cropping out the sky was the first major improvement and a great suggestion by @David_Johnston. @linda_mellor did a stellar job repairing the road. Linda, I’m reaching out to you next time I need some road repair or driveway repair. 
And then @Dick_Knudson came along and added a nice vignette to draw the eye right down the center. I love the displaced fence posts and the curving road that takes you straight to the top of the scene. The entire scene is a tiny bit blurry…I just noticed that this was hand held which explains that but only noticeable when pixel peeping.
