A Thousand Years Young
by tanguera

Comment by Gallatin:
Nice

A Thousand Years Young
by tanguera

Comment by ArpeggioAngel:
Simply fantastic. The little bit of color from the people sitting there really sets up the tone of the entire photo.

A Thousand Years Young
by tanguera

Comment by jfwolpert:
i would like to see a bit more of the color 8

A Thousand Years Young
by tanguera

Comment by jeger:
I'd be interesting in knowing where this is. South America?

A Thousand Years Young
by tanguera

Comment by bobonacus:
great splash of colour from their clothes, I like the dof

A Thousand Years Young
by tanguera

Comment by Ter:
something different

A Thousand Years Young
by tanguera

Comment by loseme:
Wow I love it. The coloring is so prefect. Nice soft touch in the surroundings.

Continental Divide
by tanguera

Comment by Melethia:
The hiker made this shot. Gives it scale, mystery. And you're doing very well here, in my opinion. High scores are wonderful but not the be-all, end-all here - sometimes recognition from folks like Joe Dannels is worth WAY more than a 6+ score. At least to me it is!

White Shoulders
by tanguera

Comment by WriteHeart:
Personally, I thought it was great! I gave it an 8. I felt that the skin was the "predominately lighter color" part of it. Very nice.

Continental Divide
by tanguera

Comment by jdannels:
I thought this image was very cool, if I would have voted in this challenge it would have been a 9 or 10 from me. There was a thread attempting to match images to their brown predecessors. Naming your image something other than what the brown ribbon you were paying homage to probably hurt your score. Of course this has nothing to do with how good your image is.

It is only a rut if you personally are not satisfied with your images. If to you, they hold a sense of accomplishment as a successful endeavor, then scores are irrelevant. Often newer DPC members want the big scores and many great comments. Eventually, they become indifferent to what their actual scores are and just want to make something interesting and pleasing to themselves. It seems to me you are already producing interesting images. There is nothing I would change with this image. Often higher scores are given to what people attribute as technically superior. If this image's DoF was extremely deep and you had the hiker and the crevice in focus, your score would have been no doubt been higher as that is seen as technically proficient, but would the image have been more interesting? I think not, it would have lost it's mystery, the viewer would not need to try and search its personal experience and make its own associations, it would simply be a walker. Hope this makes some sense, could just be me ramblings. I think you are on a good track from what I can see. Just make images that you enjoy. :)