Cemetery Tree No.2

[Kerry_Gordon]

Critique Style Requested: Initial Reaction

Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.

Questions to guide your feedback

I haven’t posted recently because my photographic interests have started moving away from landscape photography. But there is a cemetery that my wife and I like to walk through in the spring and summer evenings; a tract of landscape extending for miles up through the city. The arboreal diversity within the hidden confines of the cemetery is exceptional with many, many species that I’ve seen nowhere else in these parts. But there is one tree in particular that has drawn my attention and I have come back to photograph it on several occasions (without my wife who can’t stand hanging around while I forget about her and get lost in the camera). This image is a detail from this tree, which is very old and absolutely covered in boules.

Other Information

Please leave your feedback before viewing the blurred information below, once you have replied, click to reveal the text and see if your assessment aligns with the photographer. Remember, this if for their benefit to learn what your unbiased reaction is.

Technical Details

Specific Feedback

After downloading, what drew me to work on this picture was two-fold. First, I liked the composition, which feels balanced but dynamic. Second, are the tones and textures which, for me, give the impression of something that is as close to clay or stone as wood. But to be honest, though I personally find the image engrossing, I have no idea how others might relate to it and would surely like to know. Any feedback, but particularly your impressions and gut response in reading this picture would be most appreciated

[Igor_Doncov]

I’m surprised that nobody had responded to this image. My initial reaction is to witnessing a partially disrobed torso. The enjoyment seems to be akin to voyeurism, I think.

[Bonnie_Lampley]

I missed this one. I see the opposite of Igor - the heart of the old tree is being subsumed by younger growth.

[Kerry_Gordon]

@Igor_Doncov , @Bonnie_Lampley - Sincere thanks to you both for your comments. Appreciated as always. I love that you both see something completely different. That would certainly be consistent with my intention. Gotta say, though, for a couple of days after posting it was … crickets, nothing. I actually thought there must be some kind of malfunction.