Natural Bridge

The tonal range of the mid-day sun in Death Valley is very extreme.
I decided to play with trying to express some of that harshness with letting the shadows be darker,
but tweak it a tad to bring out some of the contrast on the darker canyon walls.
Without some measure of contrast then the canyon walls aren't very interesting...
We can see the streaking but the camera's sensor has a harder time recording that aspect.

One of the things I'm trying to distinguish is "what is going on" at a particular scene and then how to express some of that.

The glaringly harsh mid-day light: Use the high contrast as part of the expression

Its a steep wash fairly high above the valley: Incorporate the glimpse of the valley below

The sense of weight of the arch (its just mud so how stable is that really?): Let the arch be a large part of the image to give a sense of the immense weight.

The subtle streaks of mud on the canyon walls that only is that way because of the infrequent and brief rains. (Add contrast to the mid-tones).

The sense that this would not be a good place to be if it started raining... Show the constrained canyon walls with no way out.

and so forth.