Wonderful work on this assignment.
Your object was to find simplification in the nature environment. The catch was that you weren’t allowed to use small spaces. You’ve done a great job of showing your bravery when using large spaces.
You’ve captured a beautiful landscape. Let’s start by pointing out some of the highlights of the image. For starters, your use of line is great. Your image is split into three distinct layers; the ground, the mountains, the sky. These layers abide by the rule of thirds and each also takes up a different amount of space witch helps give the composition informal balance.
Which brings me to my next point. Besides the great use of color in this photograph, the second element that jumped out at me was your sense of balance. The image risked being a little too simplistic. However, you’ve incorporated water on the left of the frame which creep into the middle of the composition and create their own horizontal lines. This color highlight gives the left side of the frame more “weight” and therefore gives the overall composition an informal balance, which I personally find more dramatic and interesting. Great work!
Secondly, as I’ve mentioned, working with your golden color palette has allowed you to simplify such a large geographic space. Essentially, this is a monochromatic photograph made up of gradients of golden orange.
Beautiful! I look forward to seeing your next assignment.