Canyon Morning Light

[tjdhulst]

I took this shot two years ago while hiking in Havasupai Canyon in Arizona. The reason I took it was because while hiking through the canyon early in the morning I came around a bend and saw this lone tree with the sunrise just illuminating it's colors. It was one of those "wow" moments for me. It was taken with a point and shoot fujifilm camera but the data is this:

Shutter: 1/140
Aperture: f/4
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 9.3 mm
Exposure mode: Auto

I've tinkered with it in photoshop adjusting the saturations and contrasts trying to not only bring out the red in the canyon walls but also trying to maintain the tree as the focus of the shot. So the question is...does the tree keep your focus or does the overall image appear too PP'd?

[Stella_Bella]

I'm no expert, but I think the tree and the canyon walls seem to copy each other; the way the shapes curve and bend. The backlighting on the right side of the tree also seems to lead the eye down the path through the canyon. I like it!

[Tusia]

First of all - the canyon walls look great. I love the colour and the contrast between the sun lit and the shaded areas. Very good texture. The tree, however, gets a little lost - the walls simply overpower it.

[Aegea]

I like the shot a lot. You have done about as good job as possible of capturing the wide range between the highlights and shadows without resorting to HDR, and the composition is great. I do tend to agree with Tusia that the canyon walls keep capturing my attention, rather than the tree. Maybe a tighter crop on the tree while still keeping a good part of the wall would help ...