Bland? You mean all those trees, rocks, softly bluured water no to mention the intense red reflections were all photoshopped in? Yikes! LOL!Having been there the day before you folks I can tell you that at 5:09pm El Capitan is much redder than 5:04pm and also it's washed out at 5:11pm. As Bob said, it's also interpretive. My Phase One base images looked bland OOC as I'm sure Bob & Jack's DSLR images did (to a lesser degree perhaps).
I concur that often all it takes it a few minutes time difference for the dynamic lighting of a landscape to dramatically change. Often it's all about capturing that moment.
Dave (D&A)