Devils Wall No5

As you placed this into the NoMercy folder that means you want a brutally honest Critique from #thephotographyunion so here we go. <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/s/s…" width="15" height="15" alt="" title=" (Smile) - "/>

The initial feel of the shot reminds me of a card or a calender shot. It is well presented, the white boarder suits it well and if it had been black it would have felt shrunk.
Your info on the bottom is nicely placed and doesn't get in the way when you look at the picture.
That said it would look lot better IN an actual calender as this presentation really suits it well.

The image itself to begin with feels like a seaside shot. The gravel, the rock on the side and the sky along with the wind driven vegetation in the bottom of it.
Its not until you look at the background and see the white snow covered farm fields that it takes that thought away and starts to remind me of the feel wind swept valleys.
I know many viewers will see this and not know about the Devils Wall themselves, even my quick look on the Wiki site brought up some The Devil's Wall (Czech: Čertova stěna) is a comic-romantic opera in three acts <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/s/s…" width="15" height="15" alt="" title=" (Smile) - "/>
So unfortunately only people who KNOW the area will be able to relate, the rest of us will see a couple of rocks and some gravel.
But that is only the subject and this is not why I am critiquing so rest is for the proper shot. <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/s/s…" width="15" height="15" alt="" title=" (Smile) - "/>

The image feels bland and has a lot of dull tones around the entire image, even the foreground is dull gravel look to it and I find nothing to focus my eyes on.
The sky could have been done a bit differently I feel as the grey tones don't separate the ground from the sky.
The fact that the rocks are overly dark is from the way you post processed this image, the detail is missing and there is simply nothing to lock onto.

As a result of this I find my eyes been drawn to the rails in the middle back of the shot and then to the white fields beyond. Another way you could have done this was to remove the white snow filled fields and alter the sky to appear less drab. Changing the sky would also have changed the overall feel of this shot too, wither you went for sky blue, or a sunset type orange there is much scope for change there.

You could have done with some slight editing with dodge and burn tools to highlight little areas to draw your eye in an artificial way, as a result the shot does not flow to me.

The presentation is very nice though as I said earlier and if seen in a calender will not look out of place.
As for the image itself it defiantly has potential, and as I can see from the other images of the Devils wall in your gallery you know the area well enough to place yourself.

Vision: Without knowing that this was the Devils Wall my first guess would have placed it at a seaside until I saw the white snow fields in the back, for those of us who have never seen the Wall unless we look at your other images we can't imagine what it does look like.
3.5 as it does have potential.

Originality Looking at your other shots the area has massive potential so the chance for originality is high. In terms of the way this has been done it fits it spot on.
A 4 here.

Technique: You can tell from your other images that you have the necessary tools to correct shots like this. Think a bit more about the surrounding area as much as you can, anything that does need a tweak afterwards is simple once the shot is as close as you want it to be.
4

Impact: The layout of the shot generates its own impact but as i said above it dies off pretty quickly. There is scope though as I said for this to be so much more, but for this 1 am afraid its a 2.5

Little things let this shot down and its a shame as it can be so much more. Work on your thinking before the shot and the rest falls into place.
With a bit of work I can defiantly imagine this in a calender though easily.

Hope this feedback helps <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/s/s…" width="15" height="15" alt="" title=" (Smile) - "/>
-Member of #thephotographyunion's critique team.