These are commonly called "The Spectacles", and the 'eyes' are called the north and south windows. You may want to try searching for:The Spectacles Arches National Park to see how others have approached it. Years ago I shot the North Window. The sunlight through the south window casts a shadow on Turret Arch (seen through the North Window).
Yeah, IMHO, turret arch thru the north window at sunrise is probably the second most over done shot in arches national park, right behind the La Sals at sunset thru delicate arch. Additionally, as you can see in this photo, the sun is too far north at sunrise this time of year to effectively recreate that shot, as the large sandstone massif behind the shooter at that location (and as seen on the viewers right of the original photo) casts a shadow on the northern 1/4-1/3 of the arch. Now, in the vein of full disclosure, I went to Arches last weekend to shoot a very specific astronomical/solar event that occurs at this exact location (turret arch thru the North Window) only a couple of times/days a year. As far and I can discern, I don't think anybody's ever done it (at least on purpose). I've know about it for 3 or 4 year, and have tried to image it a few times (there are only a couple of chances each year and mother nature had not cooperated with me previously). There was a photo workshop shooting there when I tried last year, and their "leader" had no idea what was about to happen (got clouded out on that one). I did manage to image the shot this year, the results weren't up to my standards, so it's still on my photo bucket list. I'll keep trying until I nail it.
FWIW, the B&W above I call "eye spy" as a homage to "The Spectacles"...
The one thing that the original image has going for it is nice pleasing colors. The primary colors of this photograph, the greens, oranges and blues, both compliment and contrast to each other nicely (given their locations of the color wheel). Something else I really like about this image, is that, thanks to the clouds in the sky, it shows a lot of depth, which is something I usually strive for in these types of photos.
One of the other things I try to do in these types of photos is 1) Not have any "protruding" or "distracting" elements that come in from the sides of the frames, particularly the corners. 2). Don't chop off or bisect any major elements with the composition. As I mentioned before, in "busy" landscapes like this one, those two things can often be in opposition with one another and it can be difficult to achieve both. In this case, I'm not sure I achieved either one, altho I think I did better with #1 than with #2.
In order not to bisect the small tree/bush in the lower left of the frame (near the bottom of the sandstone fin), creating a protruding element, I had to bisect the large sandstone massif on the right side of the frame. While I didn't like doing that, since I couldn't frame the entire sandstone fin containing the windows anyway, at least cutting off and bisecting sandstone on the right was a congruent theme with precedence in the image (since I had to do the same thing with the fin on the viewers left). I'm also sure that there was likely some other foreground element that would have protruded if I'd framed it more to the viewers right but I don't specifically remember right now. Anyway the result is a sort of three (general) layers of color in the image Green(ish) forground, orange background, and blue sky. Layers in landscape photos, in my mind anyway, are a good thing.
My other issue with the image is I'm not 100% sure it's a balanced image. Again, it gets back to the massif on the right of the image. As is, the two arches or windows are roughly in the 3rd's of the frame. That's ok. I would have liked them more centered but this is close enough. The real issue with the massive with regards to balance is it's relative height and weight in the frame. I think it overloads that part of the image, and creates a bit of tension for the viewer.
In relation to that is the shadow area on the lower left corner of the frame. It doesn't have the same quality of light as the rest of the frame. Since it's roughly in opposition to the large sandstone massif I think it again creates a bunch of tension between those two elements. In my post processing, I brought up the shadows in the lower left as much as I felt comfortable without the fear of introducing noise or making it look unnatural. I actually darkened the lower right corner to make it balance more with the left corner.
Anyway, that's kind of my quick and dirty critique of my own image and why I don't think it sets the world on fire. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great image (not that i'm biased or anything) and it looks as good as any number of the posters or post cards in the visitors center. It's just that there are some things about it that bug me.
