Under Eastern Oregon Skies 2

[EOBeav]

Just wanted your general thoughts regarding composition, monochrome processing, and whatever else you can add to the discussion. Thanks in advance for your helpful comments, suggestions, and questions.


Under Eastern Oregon Skies 2 by Rick.Scheibner, on Flickr

EXIF:
Camera Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi
Lens: EF 17-40mm L
Exposure 0.077 sec (1/13)
Aperture f/16.0
Focal Length 17 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias 0 EV

[Krusty79]

Dropping the street cred requirement this time?

I like the foreground and midground in your shot, but for some reason, the clouds look fuzzy to me (primarily the vertical one) and that detracts from the image. I expected to see them as sharp as the rest of the shot. I thought maybe it was windy and you used a long shutter speed, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

[Hill Country Hack]

I agree with Krusty on the foreground and midground. I really like that part too.

It could have been windy up where the clouds were. I'm thinking the vertical cloud is being subjected to much more direct light coming from the right than the rest of the clouds. Would a circular polorizer been of any benifit?

[EOBeav]

I was actually shooting with my CPF most of the day, taking advantage of some awesome clouds, but I had it off for this particular location. This was one of those "turn 180 degrees and see what's there" shots. Just prior, I was shooting into the sun and had no reason to use a CPF. Oh well.

But those were generally my own thoughts about this image. I was able to get the grass to stand out, but there wasn't a ton of detail in the clouds, even when trying to blend in the darker version of them.

Thanks for the responses.

[mwanafunzi]

Even before reading your last comment, I felt that you were trying to use the clouds to add some drama.

I like how you used the lines lead the viewer through the landscape towards the horizon.

What takes a lot away from the photo is the grass. It is very dominant and is taking attention away and is reducing the overall drama that the clouds would have created.

I think that cropping out at least half the grass will help. Even though you will end up with a squarish crop, it will bring the horizon down close to the bottom third, which will in turn help the clouds and landscape stand out.

The black and white conversion does not work for me, there just does not seem to be enough contrast.