Many of New York State’s forests are farmland purchased during the great depression so occasionally I stumble on evidence of the earlier use. In this image a line of stones leading to a large tree marking the boundary between farms. This history interest me so I chose to soften the image slightly hoping for a picturely look. I also raised the highlights of afternoon sun on the tree to direct the eye to it. This my first upload here so I’m not entirely sure what feed back to request other than asking if I achieved my intent…or to gather other helpful comments. Thanks for making it this far.
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
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Welcome Gordon!
I was thinking “painterly” when I first saw it, so I definitely think you achieved what you were looking for. Despite the complexity that a forest scene presents, this really seems cohesive with a sense of wonder and mystery that I love. Beautiful!!!
Welcome, Gordon! This certainly has that painterly feel, and the light on the tree and fallen wall is lovely. I love this kind of scene, with the remnants of previous human occupation becoming subsumed by nature. I’d love to see more of the old wall. Even though it’s in shadow, lightening that really dark area pointing left from the wall might be nice. It’s sort of a dark hole.
I love your profile description - “…collecting images of the ordinary and then attempting to coax a bit of interest from them.” It’s a noble pursuit, to show us the wonder of the ordinary.
I love complex forest scenes like this because they do capture the spirit of the place. I think the soft light conveys that very well. The colors aren’t very prominent and that also works well here since this is really about gentle tone variation.
There are some issues that appear to be due to postprocessing. The shadows are inconsistent throughout the image. Some branches of the tree have dark shade and others are quite dark. The shadows to the right of the tree are much paler than to the left. That’s, at least, how it looks to me.
I agree more of the wall would have been nice but unfortunately there is a fallen tree crossing the wall about where i placed the camera for this shot. I did try a couple of compositions including the fallen companion but it dominated the image.
