In the limelight

[Ola_Jovall]

This third image, Eric, is also from the same autumn workshop as the previous two images. We visited an area with birch woods as well as open spaces with many boulders (from the latest ice age I assume). When exploring this area, I found this sunlit birch tree. Since it was changing light conditions, I did not have a long time to take the shot. I just stood on my toes and raised my arms as high up in the air as possible to being able to keep the tree within the boundaries of the boulder and took the shot blindly. I zoomed out somewhat to have some error margin, hence the image is somewhat cropped. Normally, I try to frame the image correctly out in the field.

Self Critique (click to reveal)

I did not have the time to finetune the shutter speed, so I think there is a slight movement blur in the birch leaves, but I think the image works anyhow. I cropped the image outside of the boulder to include just a minor part of the surroundings, both to show the context and to show that it is a boulder and not a rock wall. By that framing the image shows the nature where the image was shot, but the image also could tell a story that goes something like that anyone can be successful even if they not as it seems have the optimal conditions. You could also see the boulder helping to protect the birch tree for it to thrive.

Technical Details

1/160, f/8, ISO 200, 12 mm (24 mm equiv.) lens, Olympus OM-D E-M1X camera

[Eric_Bennett]

Hey Ola,

I don’t notice any blurriness. I do feel like everything you have included around the tree and boulder is unnecessary though, it’s not adding to the scene. I feel that it only detracts from the subject. I would crop in quite a bit to exclude everything else and also the white balance is very warm. Everything has a yellow color cast, as if you were looking at it through a yellow lens. You can cool down the white balance quite a bit and add a hint of green tint in order to get more color separation.

Hope this is helpful!

Your friend,
Eric

[Ola_Jovall]

Eric, thanks a lot for your comments and advice. I think your more concentrated view is an improvement, and so is for sure the removal of the color cast.

I really like this scene but have struggled how to present it. I have made severel tries with different crops etc. but never become really satiesfied. I think that I got stuck in the thinking that I wanted to also include/show the boulder, so even if I tried crops rather similar to the one you have shown above, I always rejected them. Sometimes it needs someone from the outside giving input to being able to change your mind to the better!