Clarity
This piece is unique in that I haven't worked the image overtly; that is to say, I haven't blurred it or filtered it into something else.

The scene is unmodifed save for the overlay of an enormous moon setting behind Long's Peak. Can you imagine a sky so big and utterly blue? Ironically, it wasn't until I started working with the image that I realized just how vast an expanse of pure azure there was that day.

Summer mornings in Colorado are often like that... the clouds roll in by mid-afternoon, but until then its a sheer dome of relentless blue that only pales at the horizon. It bothers me sometimes and I can't explain exactly why. Maybe it's the bland flatness that I find oppressive, or maybe the depth of a flawless sky invokes a kind of vertigo.

Whatever the sorce of the uneasiness, it's probably why I felt compelled to insert a planet-sized moon into the picture. If the sky is going to have a weight on me, then I'll have something I can see to represent the weight. Quiet, serene, and enormous to visually assume responsibility for the endless span it hovers in.