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
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.