Saguaros over Four Peaks

Nice first shot, Rusty. Welcome aboard. I like the comp here, but I'd lose the vignette and crop the blue sky to just above the clouds. Something about that space up top that doesn't work for me. I'm curious why you would use an HDR technique here. The dynamic range doesn't look that extreme or perhaps the HDR mapping as evened things out. You also used a pretty high iso and a very small opening. I love the saguaros and the snow dusted mtns. Looking forward to more images from you.

I will bracket a hand held (1/400) snow at midday without a second thought, even telephoto. How I process it depends on time and mood, art has no boundaries.

Since it's a compression shot, f22 was the ticket. The D810 can handle higher ISO with today's software.

This is really nice. Wonderful layering and light. Interesting that this is a 3-shot HDR. The contrast doesn't seem that extreme, but maybe the processing hides it.

Welcome to NPN, Rusty. Nice composition with the dusting of fg snow and the mountains echoing the saguaros. I agree with gary's suggested crop as I think it keeps the eyes in the frame more.

I think the composition is very strong with the cacti stretching up to tickle the mountain peaks if there were some way the left hand group of cacti could have just been kept within the envelope of the mountains that would be possibly even better but hardly a deal breaker. I suspect I would prefer without the sky vignette but of course it does serve to focus attention on the middle of the image. The sky and mountains look mystical and serene which compliments the harder light on the foreground. Nice picture.

Hi Rusty,

I don't think that this image needs the vignette. Foreground and background element contrast is ideal................................Jim

Rusty, welcome to NPN. This is a good looking first post. I like the emphasis on the foreground ridge with all the saguaro's. The background mountains and sky with their blue tones set off the greens and snow in the foreground well. I like the blue sky up top, but agree with the other comments that the vignette is too strong. I'd also like to see the darkest areas of the foreground opened up, but that's getting into artistic view. I'd also suggest that the purchase print link go directly to the large view of the image, not the website.

Welcome to NPN. I really like your 4 layer composition with contrasting verticals. The tonal separation between front and back is very nice also. Would love to see a large version of this so that foreground details are more pronounced.I agree with the comments about vignetting.

I really like how the cacti look like spectators gazing at the mountains. Very neat! I'm no fan of the vignetting though, it's too strong for my taste.

Goodness! Cacti and snow caps…. Perfect timing before 5 minutes in the sun melts ever evidence of this. Thanks for sharing.

Beautiful shot Rusty! I do agree about not needing the vignette but this is great. Congrats on the WP.

Clinton