The Sky Opens Up
Sunbeams shine down over Courthouse Mountain and Chimney Peak, both of which are prominent peaks in the Cimarron Mountains of southwestern Colorado.
REASON FOR REJECTION: I am on the fence about this photo, likely because I had such a fun time taking it. We saw this light developing and slowy worked our way into a position where we could see the full expanse of mountains with the sunbeams shining down over them, and I'd consider it a superlative photo experience because the light was so incredible. I ended up selecting a tighter composition for the portfolio but still feel like this photo deserves more attention and possibly a fresh start with the processing. I might start with possibly cloning out the low cloud because I find it so distracting and I'd work on bringing a bit more depth and contrast back to the mountains since they look like a shadowy monolithic blob here. I usually wouldn't clone out something as big as the cloud but given this rare lighting situation, I'd like to make this photo work as part of my portfolio. Photo © copyright by Sarah Marino and Ron Coscorrosa.