Your Thoughts?

[gahspidy]

Hey John, as busy as I know you are with the PMA trade show, it's great to see you put up something in the critque forum.
I know what you mean when you say "emotionally attached to an image". It is difficult to step out of yourself and see it the way someone else does.

Two things bother me about this image. First, the cloud formation above the mountains look very unatural. . .or rather unusual and compete with the mountains for attention rather than compliment them in the bg as does a typical good landscape scene would. Was this shape and effect part of the Photoshopping?
Second issue is merely the lighting on the mountains. . .there really is none. The mountains are in shade while the sky is lit which further helps the weird cloud/sky win the competition for attention
The overall framing and comp I like, it's just the lighting of the scene at that time and the weird sky and cloud formation just does not look to have been the best moment in time for this shot.
Just my immediate reaction to it.

[Photo-John]

First, the cloud formation above the mountains look very unatural. . .or rather unusual and compete with the mountains for attention rather than compliment them in the bg as does a typical good landscape scene would. Was this shape and effect part of the Photoshopping?.

Thanks, Gary. That cloud formation is completely natural and a critical element of the photo. So it's no surprise that it competes with the foreground. Whether it works is the question. And it sounds like it's not working for you. There's some subtle stuff going on in the dark area that's also important. But no matter how hard I tried, I don't think I'm making it obvious enough

Sometimes that's the way it goes