This is a very dramatic image of an iconic subject which seems to pay tribute to the history of American, black and white widerness photography.

Vision: The atmosphere in this shot suggests the photographer had a very clear idea in his mind of what he wanted to achieve with this image. The concept of showing the bristecone pines against the backdrop of mountains is not new, but it is certianly a good one.

Originality and Composition: Whilst the concept is nothing new I do feel that the composition is strong and different to those images which I have seen before. In particular I like the way the centre of the image is framed.

Techinique: the conversion creates a strong atmosphere and the image seems sharp and well focussed. Hoever there are a number of areas for improvement in my opinion. Firstly there is a quite signifcant slant tot he left of this image. Whilst it is noticeable in the line of mountain tops it is certainly confirmed by the distant horizon. The cumulus in the distance are a little too white. It seems one of tow areas of these clouds are clipped whilst others simply have highlight detail which is too hard to see. Whilst I think the overall tonal balance is good, I beleive it could be improves. Certainly I think a little more could be made of the trunks of the bristlecones. I also think the foreground is rather flat, like the white point has been set to a light grey. THis kind of flatness is in my opinion undesirable in a black and white image and setting a white point would give a boost to the foreground. The vignetting is a little excessive for my personal tastes, but I accept that this is an artistic decision to centrally focus the viewers attention.

Impact: This image is really quite memorable, despite several technical faults and this is much to the credit of the photographer. Indeed I feel this is one of the artist's strongest works.