While hiking with my family in Yosemite two weeks ago, we came across this sapling that had made its home on a small lichen-covered ledge perched precariously on a near-vertical granite wall about 20 feet off the ground. The delicate color of the leaves shimmered in the late afternoon sun and caught my eye.
I’m trying to get better at noticing the small things in nature rather than just focusing on the grand vistas. I took a variety of compositions but this one seemed to offer the most potential.
Specific Feedback Requested
Any and all comments and feedback welcomed and appreciated.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Canon EOS R, 24-105mm at 105mm, ISO 400, 1/100s at f/4.5
First off great eye to spot this image, Jon. It is nice to see some of the small scenes in addition to the icons of Yosemite Valley. I am always amazed with the tenacity the natural world posses as it finds a toehold in it’s quest to persevere. The soft delicate light on those leaves is exquisite. I hope you do not mind, but I downloaded the image and played around with a couple of small things. I increased the saturation in the yellows to bring the leaves out a little more from the rock face and I cropped just a little from the top to make the tree a little more prominent. Just a suggestion of course because this is lovely as is. Here is what I was thinking.
This is a great little scene! The way the ridge on the left echoes the sapling’s shape is very pleasing. The contrast between the blue/gray wall and the delicate yellow of the leaves is lovely and Ed’s rework brought that out even more. The mossy ledge is so solid and prominent compared to the tree, the opposite of how we usually think of those two things and how they interact. Moss is not normally the one doing the heavy support work. Looking out for the unobtrusive always rewards. Bravo.
While on a hike led by a forester he talked about how lichens are often the first to colonize rock formations. This allows other particles to accumulate and moss will usually be next. After that more debris collects and pretty soon you have something almost like soil. That’s when lucky seeds like the one this tree grew from can find a place to survive. It’s a process almost out of human time scale, but it’s there, quietly working in the background. I love stuff like this. Thanks for sharing.
This is a great first post here in Landscape critique Jon. I think you will find that the members in the NPN landscape critique forum enjoy seeing well done intimate landscapes (unlike some other social media outlets that favor shock and awe grand landscapes). This is a very creative take on Yosemite, kudo’s to you for seeing this. The blue color of the rock here is just wonderful. But I really like the tweak to the yellow done by @Ed_Lowe in ths rework, it’s subtle but it enhances the image.
I also like how you chose to show this much of the rock cliff. Having that much breathing room around the tree allows you to showcase some interesting details in the cliff, and it gives a better sense of the overall environment this tree survives in. Well done…
As with the others who have commented - wonderful first post. This is a scene that is rare. I love the jewel like quality of the light on the tree branches . The scene reminds me of a Chinese landscape painting in its exquisite detail. Still, I think the strengths of the image could be heightened. I did a down and dirty version to give you an idea of where I might go with it and you can see for yourself if there is anything that strikes your fancy that you might want to incorporate. I felt that there was a bit too much of the cliff and wanted to really bring the attention more to the tree and the lichen. I changed the aspect ratio from 4:5 to 8.5:11 and cropped in from the top and a bit from the bottom and left. I brightened th leaves and added some contrast to the lichen, darkened the white lichen near the top of the frame so it wouldn’t compete quite so much with the leaves and added a bit of vignette to further spot light the tree. No matter how you slice it, a wonderful scene.
Thanks for the feedback and edit Ed. I did increase the contrast of the leaves a little during my original edit but didn’t want to push it and make it look false. Your additional contrast has helped the leaves to stand out so thank-you. I like your crop as well …
Thanks Ed … good to know that these more intimate ‘quiet’ landscapes are appreciated in NPN. While I do love to shoot the ‘obvious’ grand vistas more often than not my normal mode of finding scenes to photograph is to explore and experience the landscape thru hiking while being on the lookout for potential compositions.
Hi Kerry … thanks for the suggested edit. It’s very much personal taste but I prefer the lighter gray rock (which reflects more closely the reality of the scene) and also keeping the vertical edge in the rock that mirrors the sapling’s trunk. Your crop takes out a little too much of that rock for my taste … but agree that it gives more real estate for the sapling itself. That’s the wonderful thing about photography … there’s no one right way of looking at or editing an image.
I like your approach here Jon. I too appreciate intimate quiet landscapes. Fantastic image and good eye to see it. I like Ed’s tweak to the yellow leaves.
All the reworks have been spot on. In addition, the image has a fairly somber look due to its exposure. Is this intended to be somber. The yellow leaves suggest otherwise. I would experiment with lightening the tones selectively.
Hi Igor … thanks for the feedback. No it wasn’t intended to be somber … but the edited lighting does reflect what I saw at the time of taking the image. I will take all the feedback I’ve received and have another go at playing with the tones a little more.
The new approach is to not shoot what you see but what you feel when you see it. Personally I’m having some difficulty with that. I choose that which I feel something for but I choose it because what I see matches what I feel. So I’m choosing a reality that matches my feeling and avoid that which doesn’t. It’s not that I see what’s not there but choose what’s there by how I feel about it. Sounds confusing, doesn’t it? Selective seeing rather modifying it to something you connect it with.
This is very nice. Love the composition and the subtle light.
Here’s another vote to “some more yellows” on the tree.
One small nit; it looks you don’t have enough DOF on the top of the cliff.
A very nice photo.
I like the elements here and the composition looks right. I just wonder if a bit of a spotlight effect might help give the tree a little more presence overall.
Hi Jon - I’m really late to the party here, but I had to chime in because this is really lovely - so well seen! In light of your comment that it wasn’t intended to be somber, I though about warming it up and increasing the exposure. Doing those two simple things really brings out the golden leaves of the little tree. And then a bit of a vignette/spotlight, as Tony K suggested, and there you go. The color of the rocks is a lot less blue, but if you want less somber, I think less blue would work.
Bonnie, I like your approach very much. Just a minor comment, I would have cropped a very little bit at the top just to get rid of the small lighter parts of the rock. For me it is better to have a dark edge.
Bonnie’s rework places emphasis on the mods rather than the tree. I would change that by either intensifying the leaves or desaturating the moss or both.
Hi João … thanks for the feedback. Agree with the ‘more yellow’ comment which has been consistent in much of the feedback. With regards DOF I agree it’s a little soft at the top, this was handheld as I was hiking with the family at the time. Had I had more time I would have used the tripod and taken more time to everything tack sharp.
