One of the fun things about the "Print a Day" challenge that I was talking about this weekend is that it provides an excellent incentive to go dig through the archives. Of course, most things that have been sitting in the archives for over a decade probably are there for a reason, but you do, occasionally, across some surprises.
Now, those surprises might e images that are probably "should have been portfolio images then", but were missed. Or they could be images that were "close, but no cigar", decent images that for whatever reason didn't/don't quite sing the way you'd like. In a few cases, they're images that I wasn't good enough, or the tools weren't good enough, for me to see the potential in at the time.
In any case, this is definitely "close to the bar" in either case. It has great color and some interesting textures and okay framing. In some ways, it's straight down the middle of the sorts of images I was creating reflecting my love of the Galen Rowell look.
In 2004, if anything, I probably thought this was a bit too much on the "sledgehammer of color" spectrum, and while tastes have change, I won't complain if you feel that's still the case. I have some mixed feelings about it myself. But as an example of the style, this is an image I'm really glad I got to see one more time. It's given me quite a bit to think about, and that's part of why I selected this.