First Lightning

This is a continuation of a group of images taken at Coalmine Canyon last September. For the first time ever I'm trying to work through a series of images, hoping to eventually have six from this one outing. Instead of just picking the best one or two, I'm looking to both validate that what I was shooting had merit (even though the RAW files might not seem to hold much promise once I actually review them) and to force myself to think through the different light and comps and learn to better extract an image instead of relying on a good RAW file to start with. Anil Rao has worked extensively in this manner and explained it to me as shooting a "concept" instead of an "image." While I'm not sure I can relate to this "concept" concept just yet, the exercise has definitely helped me think about approaching subjects in a different manner and to start seeing places I visit as much richer in possibilities than I did in the past.

This is number 4 and was in the evening after sunset. I initially tried to make it darker to better represent the time of day, but I liked the texture and colors in the rock too much to have them lost in the shadows. So I left in the blue color cast instead to hopefully better communicate the transition to the darker light that had occurred.

Your thoughts and opinions, as always, will be valued and considered.

Canon 5D2, 28-200@39mm, ISO 1600, f/9, 30 secs

Updated title per Stan's comment.