Super image! Congratulations! Thank you for sharing it with us! The second one is my favorite.
My two cents would be that the processing here is quite warm. It is almost inviting a warm/cool contrast with maybe a very slight lightening and cooling of the sky blues. Just an idea.
I live in AZ. The warmth of the light could be dead on. It's amazing how orange the landscape can get with dark clouds in the sky and the sun setting late. Can really be a little spooky at times.
Sweet. Looks like the Santa Ritas. You should check out Elephant Head rock. It's pretty untouched by good photographers but is quite awesome up close from the right angle. You're making me miss Tucson's monsoons. In northern AZ, our thunderheads tend to conglomerate, spread out and just blot out the sun which is less interesting to photograph.
I actually like the really warm editing in the first one since the light in Tucson does that all the time during the rainy season. I agree with Mark that the sky could use a slightly cooler tone. The way they are composed, feels slightly like the cholla are "in the way" of the view rather than contributing to the scene, I would try to find an arrangement of cholla that steps your eye more gradually from foreground to background. Check out this George Stocking photo for kinda what I mean.
I like the composition with the grass. I'd never crop that out.
I do think it's a bit dark and White balance could be tweaked a little. Just my 2 cents.
Nice location! Looks like a gorgeous moment!!!
