We're on vacation in the mountains of New Mexico and Colorado this week, so I thought I'd share a couple of pictures. I shot this one yesterday at Ghost Ranch near Santa Fe, NM. Ghost Ranch was the home of artist Georgia O'Keeffe.



Today, we visited Mesa Verde National Park near Cortez, Co. This is my favorite picture from today:

I too like Photo 2 the best. It is also a very nice application of the rule of thirds. Don't know whether you planned it that way or whether it was serendipitous. In either case, it shows that the rule works well.

Very different landscape than we have out here in Virginia. I grew up in rural Nebraska (Sandhills country and the western panhandle). My parents moved to NC while I stayed back in Nebraska to complete my senior year in high school. I flew down to NC over Christmas and remember the view from the plane as we drew closer to the Raleigh airport. I didn't know that there were that many trees in the whole world.

Bryan

its not the kind of landscape that I'm use to here in Canada, and I don't think I could live there, but it would be nice to visit.--lenny

Without the man in the second- I wiuld have thought the tree was much smaller than appears with the scale of the man, unless some strange perspective is occuring making it appear larger than actual.

With the first did you take more or wider? Looks like a location that a panorama of a few would do well.

No, I didn't take any more to the left or right of #1. I don't recall it being nearly as interesting as what I got. But sometimes you don't know until you try...

I try to think of the rule of 3rds, or at least the simpler rule - get it out of the center! I also try to spot diagonals and s-curves. And also, the near/middle/far rule. And scale, of course. That's part of the reason for the man in that second picture. To give scale. It also gives a reaction to the scene. I also took this one when he seemed to be overwhelmed by what he was seeing. Maybe it's better. What do you think?