Hi Lou. I love this area, and Factory Butte has become a very popular area to photograph! It makes a good background!

I like the composition, and you have done a good job with processing the colors. I would recommend a little lighter treatment of the sky (although it looks a little too dramatic at the size at which the browser resized it, it didn't appear quite so overdone when viewed full size, but I would still soften it a little). It also looks like there might be quite a bit of noise in the sky. If you have Topaz Sharpen AI then perhaps you also have Topaz Denoise AI. It works quite well on images like this. And the new denoise just released in Lightroom does a good job too.

Another thing that bothers me a little bit about this image is that there doesn't seem to be very much shadow under the tractor. At first, I thought you might have composited the tractor into the picture, because it looks a bit like it is floating. But when I looked at the original, I saw there was shadow there. I would recommend trying to save a little more of that shadow during the processing so it looks a little more natural and like it belongs there (also toning down the red a little might help with that. I know you must like how it stands out with its bright red, but it would look more natural if it blended with its surroundings a bit better).   Posted: 07/05/2025 14:54:50

Hi Drema, thanks your insightful comments. I did not notice the tractor shadow at all.   Posted: 07/06/2025 15:06:37

Hi Lou, what I found interesting in this image is the incongruity between the land that looks to me like almost a desert and the farm equipment ready to cultivate. Being from the East, farmland is green and fertile. I do notice to the very left of the image some greenery. The post processing looks very good, well done.   Posted: 07/07/2025 23:49:50

Hi Lou, I recognize that butte! I have been very close to this spot on a photography workshop a couple of years ago. Like you and Richard I also found farming in such an arid area to be a surprise. Is that the story you are trying to tell here?

I would also be tempted to make the sky look a little less stormy.   Posted: 07/09/2025 06:45:09

Hi Lou, sorry my comments are so late.

Like others I have been here. Did you see the abandoned cement mixer at the access road off of Rte 24?

Compositionally I think Factory Butte and the red tractor/green plow struggle with each other, especially with the dead space in the middle. And the road on the far left could be a nice leading line but it is too close the edge. I would have considered being a couple of hundred yards left, put the road closer to the center, and eliminated the red tractor   Posted: 07/27/2025 20:15:36

I like the stormy sky...maybe if the drone was a bit lower, so the tractor looked/felt at a normal angle. I think the red of the tractor competes with the red of the butte. Maybe focused on the machine on the left, it feels a bit muted and matching better with the surroundings.
great area to photograph! hope to get out there someday   Posted: 07/28/2025 13:37:59