[dcclark]

Thanks for the comments, ELAY.

Two people have mentioned that I should stop down farther to max out the depth of field. This seems strange to me, for two reasons:

1. The depth of field already seems very good, and, at least without zooming in to a much larger size, everything seems to be in good focus.

2. Beyond f/11, and certainly at f/20, diffraction will come in to play and more than cancel out any sharpness / DOF gains which I would see.

As for the sense of depth in the photo, I'm not sure about it -- I'm going to go try some new things when I can get back up to the mine. However, the layered arrangement of roof-wall-smokestack is what I thought would give it depth, with exactly that fore-middle-background arrangement you mentioned. I think that including the ground itself in the shot would probably make it much less dramatic. Perhaps there's another way...

Thanks again!