Critique Wanted Rock Quarry Landscape - 4 different versions

My initial thoughts suggest that the subject is better suited to a landscape format. For me numbers 3 and 4 render too dark on my monitor for the foreground, however I prefer the more dramatic sky rendering of either 3 or 4, I'd try and couple that with the foreground (by which I mean up to and including the tree line) tones of number 2.

Barrie
 
I like the color palette of #1, #1 or #2 for the composition/crop, and #3 for the darkness and grit.

I'd probably crop #3 to be closer to the first two (the trucks and buildings don't do much for me, and I feel like the roads lead the eye into the scene) and drop some control points on the trees to brighten them up while keeping most of the scene dark and industrial looking. Also, I like the pops of yellow on the trucks in the first....I would integrate that aspect as well.
 
For me the most potential is in #4, although the conical roofs and blue buildings mar the clean white horizontal of the road that would otherwise work nicely with the dark horizontals of the quarry terracing in the upper mid right
Have you tried flipping it? It reads a bit better even with those buildings still there.
I'm with Barrie on landscape format - in fact I might stretch it to 16*9

I find the processing sets my teeth on edge a bit in colour, to be brutally honest; I'd be backing off the contrast; I expect you've tried it in black and white?

I dunno, I always feel a bit weird about this sort of request. We can all suggest how we'd do it, but we're not you John ... if you're asking us the question, then is it also worth asking yourself have you selected the right shot to go with?
 
I prefer #1, like square but would let more in on the left hand side, those tanks/buildings are too close to the edge in my opinion. Cool shot though, would look well printed large


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I don't generally go for square crops but the first two images works best in terms of overall framing and composition. The first seems to have a bit too much clarity or similar processing applied and a level of saturation that doesn't appear to match the light conditions. I don't know if it's a dust spot or not but I'd clone out that dot just at the top of the treeline.
 
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