Not a lot to say about these photographs.  Do two average photos equate to one good one?  The location is a very prominent feature just north of Sedona, Arizona.  I took these photographs while on a trip with Alain Briot in November of 2003.

In the first image, the shadow in the lower right detracts from the image.  I think the spire on the right helps to frame the scene. 

The second photograph is okay, but I don't think it's that great.  I do like the contrast of color in the scene -- the yellow grass, orange rock, green tree, and blue sky.  But the composition isn't great.

I mistakenly shot both of these at 400 ISO.  I'm not the only photographer who has made this mistake in the field (and I'm done it before) -- manufactures should think about idiot-proofing this somehow.  Fortunately, the camera still performs well at that range, so I didn't bother correcting for noise.

Since I photographed in RAW mode, I had greater control when finalizing the image.  During RAW conversion, I optimized the color -- perhaps too much (to compensate for the ho-hum composition and lighting).  The second photo also benefited significantly from pushing the black point slightly -- something most digital negatives require.  My lens and sensor were dirty, so I had to spend a little time cloning out small dust artifacts.

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