Three and a half years ago, when I picked up my first “real” camera, it was for the purpose of documenting the month-long canoe trips that my wife and I had been taking every August. I quickly learned the “rules” of landscape photography – you know, wide angle, camera low, something in the foreground, leading line to something in the background – sunset, sunrise, moody mist. Perhaps, I’m being unkind, but for me, anyway, it got pretty old, pretty quick. As I entered my fourth year and headed out on our trip this past summer, I knew I had to take more risks and practice seeing beyond the safety of the formulas that felt so safe. It was a great trip and I literally took thousands of photographs that focused on much more intimate scenes, exploring textures, tones, colour and movement. But there was something more in the mainstream that I had never had any success with in the past and I wondered if bringing a different sensibility to it might make the difference. I have never been able to take a picture in a forest. Maybe that’s because I was trying to rigidly apply my landscape formula where it just didn’t fit, and I wouldn’t let it go. Anyway, this summer, as I moved through the forests that bounded the waterways we were paddling through, I developed a mantra for seeing the forest – “light and line.” I was looking for pattern amidst the chaos. It was also fortuitous that we were paddling through large tracts of boreal forest burn. The trees were mostly all standing but had been flash burned so the foliage and canopy was gone. That meant I could see into and move through the forest in a way I would never otherwise have been able. I’m hoping that this will be the first in a series that I’m calling “Boreal Burn”. I’d really appreciate your feedback. I feel like I’ve succeeded at least in finding pattern through light and line that lets the eye explore without being overwhelmed by the inherent chaos of a forest. Does this work for you compositionally and is there anything you might suggest in terms of post processing that I’ve either overlooked or pushed too far? Thanks for your feedback.
Kerry,
This is wonderful and beautifully captured. I would say, kudos to your diligence and persevearence in expanding your vision. They two primary layers (foreground trunks - and then bg forest and light) are presented beautifully together with the bg offering a lovely accent of warm light with the clear main subject upfront. The greens and firewood also add and complete the image. Processing is excellent.
Minor nit - to do something with the triangle rock along the lower left edge. One of those times when either we need to see more (included intentionally) or clone it out completely. An even smaller suggestion would be to desaturate the yellow in the grass blades in the LRC; not a huge deal, but draw the eye a smidge. If anything on both these counts - is there any more room left at the bottom? or is this the edge of the frame. Including just a tad more could mitigate my suggestions. Otherwise, I’m sure enjoying this beauty.
Lon
Hi Kerry! I think this is a beautiful image, just a tad bit busy, but that’s what you get in the woods. If you had a little fog beyond that big rock in the background, this would be a whole other image.
But as far as the composition, I was a bit distracted by the left side and thought it was just a bit too much. So I thought maybe a crop might be in order. 1 x 1? This is just my 2 cents worth of course.
I cropped out a big chunk on the left, including the big tree, leaving 5 trees (rule of odds) and the flowers in the foreground. And of course while I was at it, I had to make a few adjustments. I brightened up the background, darkened the foreground, bumped up the vibrance, and added a little Orton effect in the background trees. (FYI, I’m learning new techniques in Ps. So I’m like the kid that just discovered the clarity slider in Lr LOL Forgive me for over processing it.) Now that I look at it further, a little light dodging and burning on the foreground trees might bring out the sun’s effect on them. But… I digress.
I envy you the ability to roam around in woods like these. Lovely! I hope we can see more. 
Thanks for your carefully considered feedback. Always appreciated. Yes, the rock at the bottom. I picked up on that and tried to address it by desaturating but, I agree, it still pulls the eye. I could clone it out but I think I’d rather try maybe frequency separation - keep the texture that is already there but bring in the colour from the rocks and soil to the right. I’ll give that or something like it a try. You are also right about bringing down the yellow in the grass LRC. Appreciate your eye. I’ll re-post when I get to it.
Thanks Barbara for taking the time to give me your feedback and edit. So, there’s a lot of reasons why I wouldn’t go with a square edit, mostly because I wanted to highlight the horizontality of the rock face (almost like a lit stage) against the verticality of the trees. For me, at least, the diagonal tree on the left is an important element in the image as it helps to funnel the eye along the fire weed, through the foreground trees to lighting on the rock face as well as balancing out the other diagonal tree on the right. Now, evidently it’s not quite working for you, so maybe I missed the mark and I will certainly take what you’ve offered and give it some thought, if not for this image then for composing future ones. Thanks again for your time and feedback.
Oh no, you didn’t miss the mark. I’m fairly new to this. Everyone sees things differently. I certainly can understand how you envisioned it, now that you explain it to me. What I suggested totally changed the dynamics of the image. So no, I suppose my crop wasn’t the best idea. I’m a bit dense about these things sometimes. And in the end, if you’re happy with it, that’s all that matters. Congrats again on the beautiful image.
@Lon_Overacker Here is a revised version. Small changes but I think they do strengthen the image. What do you think?
Excellent! Nice job on the latest rework Kerry. Not fond of any cropping here either; mostly because all those forward trees are important to the comp. You did well to tone down those two very minor distractions. Thanks for taking the time!
Lon
Kerry,
Your final revision is especially nice. The off center fireweed is essential to your story behind the image. Well done…Jim
This is a pretty complex composition. It’s a bit chaotic but there is enough structure to hold it together. A couple of suggestion. 1) I usually try to not have my flowers cut off by the edge of the image. If there’s any way to add green between the frame and flowers that would be good 2) The large fg tree on the left is tonally merging with the bg in the upper levels. It would be nice to have greater separation. I don’t think point #2 is that important. Actually, the longer I look at this the more I appreciate the thought and attention that went into it.
@Igor_Doncov Definitely giving it plenty of thought and attention. Hope I get to it in this lifetime 