"Messages From The Past"

[jmandell]

Man it has been a long time since I've been on here, but I'm back with some new shots!

Here is the first, from Saguaro National Park in Tucson, AZ. It features a large rock pile with numerous petroglyphs inscribed by the Hohokam Native Americans sometime between 300 and 1400 CE. This was a truly amazing sight to see, and the skies were just awesome that night too (look for a picture of the sunset in the Landscape forum - "The Sky is on FIREEEE!!!")
:mrgreen.

I think its a pretty good shot, but I'd love some brutally honest criticisms to help me improve it! I had to make on critique, it is that the rocks seem to kinda blend in with the mountains in the background

Nikon D700
16-35 F4 at F13
1/20 sec, ISO200
Processed in Photoshop CS6

 

[TwilitLens]

If a newcomer can say welcome back, I'll say it.

I love b&w: it just has that uncanny ability to unlock a subject. And this looks like a tough call to me. The sky and land look equally interesting, but ideally one should dominate the other. The rule of thirds will serve you well here. Maybe you could try it both ways and see which one you like better?

 

[Light Guru]

I really like it, and the image works really well the way it is. Perhaps a little bit different way to photograph the location would be to pick one petroglyph and make it thr do event foreground object. The way it is now I didn't even notice the petroglyphs at first.

 

[ristretto]

As it is, the composition is too weighted to the left compared to the right half. The dark sky on the horizon over the pile of stones, in contrast to the empty middle distance of the right. I'd dodge or lighten that part of the sky, and use also a more square picture ratio, centered but with slight bias to the left half of what you have here. This would exclude some of the stones form the far left but exclude more of the open ground to the right.