Thanks to each of you for your helpful comments.
Maddogmurph, to the best of my recollection these images were taken at the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes.
Chris, I'm not quite sure what you mean by passe (as in out of fashion?), but if you are saying that you don't find dark skies appealing, then that's a matter of taste that I can't argue with. The sky in that image isn't black, but I agree that it's dark, made to appear more so by my presentation on a white background. In the first attachment below, that same image is shown on a black background, which makes a big difference in how dark the sky looks. In color, white clouds against a deep blue sky present a striking color contrast, but much of that is lost in straight conversion to black and white. So I used a yellow-ish filter effect in conversion to enhance tonal contrast. I liked the effect, but maybe some would say that I overdid it here.
You got me to think about it, so in another image in this series that I'm converting, I made two versions. In the second image below, I again used the same yellow-ish filter effect to enhance contrast. But for comparison, in the 3d image below, I processed the image to maintain approximately the same relative visual contrast between sky and clouds as was in the original color version. I'm actually having a hard time deciding which I like better.
In any event, thanks for stimulating me to examine the issue a little more deeply.
