To Edit or Not to Edit

There are a lot of people in the world of hobby photography who have never been trained to edit an image - myself included - they just do whatever feels is natural to them. This is something I long to rectify in my own photography. Reading books and articles just doesn't cut it, and quite often my photos come out unrealistic. But then - a lot of edited images are like that. Take this guy for example. He has some great shots of the Pilbara but every time I seem them pop up on my Facebook feed I appreciate the image as an image, not a photo. I know that it is the editing that has got them to that particular style. It's true, some are much more edited than others, but knowing the landscape, you can't deny that some form of post-processing has occurred. 

So, below is a little attempt of my own. I wasn't going to put it on here, but then I showed a friend of mine and they were impressed so I figured I would share it. It's a Pilbara landscape but fairly heavily edited as the sky was quite overexposed and the foreground dark. I think I just need to get better at using my splits and getting the colour right in the capture.

Gregories Gorge - Fortescue River. Canon EOS 50D f/9, 1/320, ISO 100, 10mm. Wide Angle 

It's a pity the trees don't look real. It took my off-road boots, trekking up shale and dodging my father's rocks tumbling down the hill to get this photo.