I find the contrast of the dark line on the top of the first distracting and pulling me up to look at it. I'd crop below it and open up the detail in the dark door so there's more of a visual reward at the end of that long climb. To that end you guys should seriously consider recruiting some models for your photo safaris to lurk in the shadows of shots lik this and add interest
I like the second shot as cropped.
The tonal range in both is more contrasty ( washed out highlights / blocked shadows) than a technically well executed full range B&W film/ print would reveal, but that's to be expected with a digital capture with a sensor that has half the dynamic range. You might want to consider bracketing and HDR processing for static scenes like this you plan to convert to B&W.
Thanks, Chuck. I agree with you about the need for (better) models.
And about the dark line.
As part of the composition workshop I was on, we shot RAW+BW jpeg to help visualize in BW. I didnt take the time to rework both of these images from the RAW file where I could have (and should have) recovered a bit of shadow detail and highlight info.
