The Laurisilva of Madeira is the largest surviving area of primary laurel forest now confined to the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands of the eastern Atlantic.
These forests have a wealth of ecological niches, intact ecosystem processes, and play a predominant role in maintaining the hydrological balance on the Island of Madeira. The property has great importance for biodiversity conservation with at least 76 vascular plant species endemic to Madeira occurring in the property, together with a high number of endemic invertebrates and two endemic birds including the emblematic Madeiran Laurel Pigeon.
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Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Nikon D-850, 16-28mm, handheld.
Now this is different! The fog is so wonderful…a photographer’s best friend. The way you’ve framed the further tree works very well and the angle of the slope is certainly different. The small tree to the far right is weird though…I’d have a go at cloning it out or using Content Aware Fill. I think it would balance better. The upper branches in the middle where that clump of leaves is could be cloned or toned down a bit. It’s so close to the edge though…hm. Is it cropped? Really striking and ethereal.
On my trip to Portugal 2 years ago I wanted to go to Madeira, but we ran out of time. I’d go back to Sintra in a heartbeat, so if we do that maybe the islands will follow.
Stunning! Great use of an exaggerated landscape frame and love the dynamic diagonal. The framing of the background tree shows a lot of attention to detail. The overall color saturation I think could be a little stronger, but in this light, it’s sort of part of the mood. However, given the monochrome nature of the image, I don’t think you’d lose anything with more color.
Good point! That’s what intrigues me most with NPN. With the added set(s) of creative eyes details are picked up that are right in front of us, but we don’t see. Thanks, Kris.
We’ve spent a lot of time on Madeira to avoid the western PA winters. It’s perfect. Most of the coast line is cities, towns, and villages. All neat, quaint, and clean. There are resorts, but they don’t dominant the towns, and there isn’t the walled resort compound with surrounding poverty. Plus, the majority of the central island is national park. It’s easy to get away from tourists into some rugged wilderness. The climate on the coast is mild to warm and at the same time it’s snowing in the highlands. Then there’s the wonderful warm Portuguese friendliness, especially in the outlying villages. We get an apartment and spend our allotted 90 days, except last year.
Excellent use of line and visual weight here. The vertical nature of the framed tree really grounds the viewer.
As for luminance observations, I personally like the anchoring aspect of the vertical tree on the right of the frame referred to by @Kris_Smith, but would personally dodge it a bit to lighten it and have it compete less with the main trunk just to its left.
There are a couple of dark spots in the foreground…completely nitpicking here…but given that this image invites the viewer to look around, I find the darkness of these darker patches of soil a mild distraction and I would endeavor to direct my viewer away from this area and lift those shadows to make them less noticeable.
Framing is great, and I enjoy the implied line between the upper most branch arching leftward and the other branch in the upper left corner. Yet, this upper most branch is just at the upper edge and gets slightly cut off. I find this element to be pretty important to the overall framing and wonder if there’s any room in your original image to allow that upper branch a little more room to breathe?
As for color as @Tony points out, I can see this image successful as a B&W, or with a little more saturation. As is is certainly working well also, but the color is very muted and almost creates a bit of tension in and of itself…(is there color?, what color is that?)
Regardless, this is a tremendous image, very well demonstrated and a definite portfolio shot if I were lucky enough to have seen and captured! THanks for sharing!
Excellent composition of angles and twists and turns. I agree about the thin tree on the right but there is so much to admire here that it seems like a small issue by comparison. You could also make it slightly lighter but that would change the emotional level which you probably like as it is.
Paul, I think Igor’s comment nicely sums up my thoughts. I love the exaggerated perspective in your composition, and the framing of the background trees, thus you achieved a very creative point of view. Yes, the thin tree could be seen as a minor distraction, but as Igor said it is minor in comparison to the overall creative vision you achieved here.
And here is another idea to consider, It gets rid of the thin tree, but maintains the spirit of your original concept of this image. I like how the crop places even more emphasis on the background tree.
Thanks so much to all of you! Your comments are very much appreciated.
I’m on the road right now and working on my iPad so I can’t do some of the ideas suggested, nor can I look at original DNGs in my archive. But be assured the I will give all of you suggestions a try.
This image has gotten a lot of my attention in the past and I have a series of final prints with a lot of different “looks”. Your comments will add to that collection of interpretations.
Wow, Paul! I really love this photo. I feel like I’m looking into a scene from a fairy tale and I just want to walk right in! I also really like the crop that @Ed_McGuirk did. I think it really makes the image more powerful. Very nice work!
I would recommend that you either clone the small tree out or remove it with content aware fill instead of cropping the tree. If you crop the small tree out you lose the shape of the big tree. Instead you get the dominant branch. But the right side of the tree is also beautiful. And if you think of the image as just a group of shapes distributed within a frame then you’ve lost some shapes in your composition with such a crop. You’ve lost the brighter shapes between the tree and the frame.
Really like this one, Paul. I like the idea of cloning the little tree as suggested above, rather than cropping. Great mood captured here, a mysterious medieval feel.
