You are shooting vertically to stress the tree's relationship to the yellowish moist ground here, while I shot horizontally, cutting off the trees and stressing only the amazing misty ground that underlies the Thermal Forest (http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/104712911 ) It is also interesting how differently you have interpreted the color -- your ground appears to be yellow, while mine is reddish. It must be my cloudy white balance that made the difference. They seem like two entirely different places, yet we shot there together, just one minute apart according to our exif data. Amazing.