Swirling mists surround these dead snags overtaken by the formations at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. The swirling of the mists, the deadness of the trees, and the visual rhythm of the snags are key elements here.
While I often pre-visualize monochrome images as monochrome, in this case, I had originally seen this as a color image. The blue sky peaking through the mist was clean and deep, the oranges of the mineral deposits are beautiful and contrast wonderfully with the sky. But here the color didn't work, and, unusually, not because the color was uninteresting. The colors were vibrant enough, but they didn't add to the feeling that I had when I was there. While pretty, they distracted.
Even when thinking about a single image (and things get more complicated as one assembles a portfolio), and trying to decide on whether to use a color or monochromatic presentation, it isn't enough to simply ask oneself if the color is interesting, or a separate source of beauty. In the end, I think a better heuristic is to ask oneself if the color adds. In this case, I slowly, but eventually, came to the conclusion, that it did not. What do you think?