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
Appropriate analogy?
Other Information
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Image Description
Fire-scarred trunk of a bristlecone pine (Pinus aristata), with an unburned projection that resembles a flame overlying the burnt scar.
Technical Details
Canon EOS 5D; Canon EF 28-70mm @ 70mm; f/16 @ 1/4 sec, +0.33 EV, ISO 100; Gitzo tripod; RRS BH 55; remote trigger
Thank you @ Shirley_Freeman for your comments. This specimen is alive and well in Schulman Grove. Bristlecone pine trees can survive low-severity surface fires. The constrained location of this scar leads me to believe it is the result of a lightning strike.
I do like the fire analogy, Bob. that’s the first thing I thought of without even looking at your title. I don’t know if you messed with the colors in processing but they also suit the idea very well. This would have made a neat abstract as well.
Thank you @Dennis_Plank for nice comment and question. The image was captured on October fourth, at 4:42, approaching sunset. The light was very strong and yellow-orange. I chose not to submit to the Abstract category because, to me, there isn’t any mystery as to what we are looking at—a scorched tree trunk.
Bob: 4+ awesome as far as I’m concerned! Love the textures and details and the color palette too. Well seen and superbly captured, composed and presented. >=))>
My immediate response is that you have a terrific intimate detailed shot that has great composition and interest because of the vertical lines, texture, and interesting LRC.
You might consider burning in the lightest yellows next to the black center as well as on the flower-like stem in the middle. I would (wood) say this is a terrific image, all puns intended.
Yes, Bob, it is always what you see and how you see it. You did a great job of seeing.
Thank you @Larry_Greenbaum for your observations. With regard to the areas you suggested to burn down. Those sections bordering the blackened hole are the areas catching the brightest light, which in a fire are brightest, and the center “flower-like stem” Is the “flame.”
