I like your version of the same landscape I shot as a vertical athttp://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/56189917 And I iike the vertical format just as much. It would be hard to choose between them if we had to do so. Your version links the bush and cloud more closely, but eliminates the sense of space that extends all the way to the horizon. Each image works in its own way to define the Valley of Fire.
