I was attracted to this tree by it’s color. It had been raining on and off that day on the Kenai Peninsula and I decided it was a perfect time to shoot images. After much slipping and stumbling I’ve decided that shooting just after the rain may be a better idea.
The black spruce in Alaska is under siege. A small beetle apparently just loves this tree for there are entire dead forests of this species. As the tree fights for survival it undergoes major changes in color and it’s these changes that I found so beautiful on this August day. There are blues, greens, yellows, and rust all in the same tree.
Igor, at first I thought not of usual Igor vision…but as I took time to look at this image I began to appreciate the kaleidoscope of colors (very subtle if only viewed small) and range of textures. I like this image alot. Slipin’ & slidin’ is what we do to fulfill a vision!
You are right in that sense. The visions I like don’t come easy and often. They come out of nowhere and I don’t understand them but I trust myself enough to make the shot. I shoot the above type of images hoping that in the process the visions will come. Up until a few years ago most of my work was of this type and I still go back to it. The visions are unplanned while the above can be searched and found and therefore are somewhat more predictable. That’s my experience these days. Maybe it will be easier with practice. I’m hoping that as I understand things better the visions will be less of a surprise and more easily recognized. But since I shoot intuitively I don’t think that’s likely.
I have taken a lot of similar pattern shots of spruce boughs in Acadia. You not only have the fractal pattern of the boughs, but there is also the mosaic of the green/yellow/rust colors that you mentioned. The secondary pattern of subtle colors adds a nice layer of richness that enhances the fractal pattern. There is more to appreciate here than repetition of shapes.
While the composition works well as presented, it’s too bad that most of the rust color is in the ULC. I think you would also have a strong composition by cropping away the top third of the image. But alas that would lose most of the rust color. So in the end I’d keep it as presented.
I had thought of cropping some of the upper part as well. I felt that the strong vertical to vertical/diagonal lines called for a vertical frame rather than a square one. That’s why I ended up with this. I agree that the lower half is more interesting than the upper part.
I have photographed boughs in the past as well but it’s the color variation that made me go for this one. You pretty much stated that.
