Hear that voice again

Snow, but also fog is a great friend to the woodland photographer. It can help to bring atmosphere and also isolate what are almost always complex scenes. When I drove by this little section of woods, it wasn’t foggy, but these small saplings were still showing color and I thought I’d hit it the next morning before the sun crested. I did, but was rewarded with fog and oh, it was wonderful.

I stayed until the fog was burning off and came away with several shots that I really like including this one. What drew me was how the small tree appears to be growing out of the stump. It’s probably a sugar maple sapling and can idle along in this tiny state until an opening in the canopy brings enough light for it to become a tree.

Specific Feedback Requested

Is the little tree too centered? On either side out of frame are more of these trees and having more than one in the shot when they were so widely spaced just didn’t work as a composition, so I went closer, but had to more or less center that tree.

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
Tripod

image

Lr for initial crop, a touch of white balance adjustment and the usual when it comes to creating contrast, texture and improving the look of the fog with the dehaze slider. Also did some transform work to straighten the trees. Photoshop to remove some distractions and add a soft glow action with the TK panel. Reduced layer opacity to around 60% so it wasn’t so intense. Also ran a lights mask and output to a color grading tool and added a touch of blue to the fog.

@the.wire.smith

Beautiful, Kris. Love everything about it and your description of your post processing . . . but . . . I just can’t get over the stump. It keeps bring my eyes to it and I’m missing the best part of the image, IMHO.

I agree with @linda_mellor – the stump just doesn’t do it for me – not in the context of such a gorgeous scene! Nor does the large tree on the left. Not sure if the spacing would permit, but I’d try to get close enough to the small tree that the stump was not in the frame or removable, and exclude the tree on the left. The remaining scene is wonderful and most likely subject to some magic.

Well I’m in the minority again. It’s home.

Here’s a similar scene without a stump, but with a log.

The original kept poking at a brain cell and I figured out what it was – it reminded me of this image by Bruce Barnbaum.

Here’s where I see the elegance in the original – the arrangement of the small tree with the ones echoing it to the right.

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