About the Image(s)

This is a pic of salt harvesting pools in the 500 year old Maras Mines, in the Sacred Valley near Cusco (Peru). Too
small to notice without intently peering, and related to a double meaning of the title, is a lone miner near upper right hand corner, wearing a blue shirt. My questions to the group:

(1) what aspect ratio is the preferred crop. I've provided two crops: the tighter crop emphasizes more detail, while the wider landscape better captures the impact of how many pools there are (I couldn't get any wider angle shot with my
equipment, but the scene warranted wider);

(2) whether darkening the red earth mountainside in the background to black is preferred (to highlight the pools
themselves) over leaving the mountain subdued red? Is black too kitsch?

The intended effect is to make the observer look twice to figure out what they're looking at (which is the impact one
gets from the mountain road above when you first see this mine). Hopefully the observer will be rewarded by spotting the miner, without being prompted.