You see to me that edit still looks unnaturally overstatured and I don't think it focuses on the pics strenghts, strong texture and the atmosphere the washed out colour creates. I suggested B&W because I thought it might keep the same kiind of atmosphere while bringing out the texture more with the increased contrast manipulation B&W allows.

I'd try converting this to black and white myself, you've got good texture and subtles changes of tone there but as a colour shot your really lacking contrast which is much easier to heavly manipulate in B&W

I like the third pic best Dandu, the lights less harsh and the shallow depth of field isolates the point of interest really well.

Very nice shot brspled, I always find myself having to trim down those kinds of portrait pics to closer to a 4/3 aspect but the lines in the sand really sustain interest there.

Landscape pics do I'd say have the largest sliding scale for equipment of any kind of photography. If you take shots in good lighting condictions and only want to view them on a PC or smaller prints pretty much any camera can give good results. On the flipside though the more challenging the pics you want to take and the larger you want to print the sky is the limate when it comes to camera, lens and filter costs.

Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany....

I'm pretty sure most of them had some form of digital editting, the difference compaired to alot of what you see on the net though was that its well done editting.

A couple from Devon last autumn...

Thanks, while I wouldnt say a 550D is the highest level camera for landscape shots where advanced autofocus and high frames per second don't matter its as good as many larger/more expensive models. I actually went for it over the 60D or 7D(5D mk2 and L lenses are beyond my means at the moment) for those reasons as it makes it easier to take with me more often.

Canon 550D, Tiffen 2 stop graduated screw in filter to help equalise sky/land light levels and just Canon's free Digital Photo Progression software to edit. I shoot raw most of the time and then convert to black and white in DPP, generally using the red digital filter then manipulate the various contrast controls. The best starting point though is always a dramatic sky in the first place, right under a storm cloud helps alot as you get both a dramatic sky and dramatic light coming in from the side underneth it to make the ground more striking.

Always reminds me off...

Layed up with a cold today so lots of time for image editting.