Shot this from a dirt road just above some barbed wire fencing. Accessible, but a very wild area. Finding a good spot and focal length to present the first few Sycamore trees posed an initial challenge and focus was another. I liked the way the wildness of the scene filled the frame. The abundance of leaf color the first 2 weeks of January is not unusual for these trees in So California, they will lose them all by end of the month.
Specific Feedback Requested
All comments welcome. Does it strike you that the image is off balance and needs more space on the left side?
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Nikon D7100, NIkkor lens 70-300 mm @112 ; f11, 1/5s, 100 iso
Stephan, these sycamores look like a great subject to work with at this time of year. A nice late autumn mood, even if it is January. I do not think this is unbalanced composition-ally. The center is dominant due to it strong shapes, but there are things of interest both to the left and right of it.
However, I do think the center and right side contain more interesting elements than the left third of the image does. The trunks have the strongest shapes in the center, the leaf cluster is stronger on the right than the left, and I like the way the trees are leaning on the right. I was thinking of a crop more like this. I think it places more emphasis on what I enjoy about the scene.
Thanks for your input, @Ed_McGuirk. I have a few shots and a few crops and your version is one of them. I think I like the center trees set amid the wildness of the setting. So I posted a wider version with a little different processing. Taken a few days earlier and more leaves. Now the more I see it , it loses the impact of the center trees by having more foliage. Oh well thanks for the feedback.
The greater preponderance of of yellow on the left in the second image does somewhat diminish the impact of the white trunks for me. My left side crop of the original post was less about removing chaos and clutter, and instead more about making the yellow on the left side slightly less prominent, and allowing the yellow on the right to dominate.
Nice intimate landscape. I like @Ed_McGuirk’s crop. Stephen, you might want to clone out the horizontal bow-shaped branch in the left foreground. I think it is a bit distracting to your excellent capture of this tree grouping.
Thank you, @Larry_Greenbaum for your comments and input. Yes, I like the look of the 1x1 crop Ed provided. And oh, how I tried to find an angle or focal length to not have that bow shaped downed branch in the image, it is definitely in your face with its LRC foreground location, but alas it has come to earned my respect and a final spot in the shot. But I think I will have to Photoshop remove a few of the invading twiggy branches to keep them from clawing at the white trunks.
As I look at this image more, I realize how many branches and twigs are in the foreground. Using content-aware I removed the bowed branch. What do you think?
