What changed: Leveled the horizon. Thanks to @Glenys_Passier for noting the slant. This may have been hand held but I can’t recall. The M7 did have an optical viewfinder so there was no internal leveling reference.
Added after receiving feedback from the community.
The photographer is looking for thoughtful feedback on the image as a whole, especially around the areas noted below.
Feedback Focus: Artistic / Expressive
About This Image
This is the back side of Listen to the Wind taken a couple of years before. The front view that I took at this time was similarly composed but the sky was less dramatic. In this view I didn’t think the sky was as important and I got the bonus of the bird checking me out. I suspect this old guy resisted the wind on Trail Ridge for decades if not centuries. I wonder if it is still defiant against the elements. >=))>
Feedback Requested
Do the gnarled limbs convey the constant buffeting of the wind at this high altitude? I can still feel it every time I look at these shots.
Fine work Bill. It looks like a sculpture. I think if you had stood a bit to the right you could have hid the green branches and shown off the ‘legs’ a bit better. The secondary tree is a wonderful, as is the crow on it. Nice imaginative image.
This is a wonderful image Bill. I love the gnarled old tree again the beautiful sky. The colours are soft and controlled. The tree in the background seems to be surrendering…to something I am yet to work out. The bird is the icing.
I wonder if the image needs a slight CCW rotation. I’m just looking at the clouds in the distance.
Bill, “they went thataway…” The details in the gnarled old tree are matched well by the details in the lichen covered rocks it’s grown out of. The 2nd tree and it’s d"ecoration" add well to the view.
Bill, I like this very much. These old “survivors” are more than just landmarks; they are lessons in aesthetics and content, like a history book for those who don’t read. And , of course, they provide spectacular compositional elements for landscape photography.
Very well done, Bill, and yes, the wind comes through very well. You managed a beautiful composition and as noted, the sky isn’t really a factor in this one.
Excellent Bill! Those old gnarled trees not only carry a strong sense of the wind, but also simply in survival! Wind, rain/snow/freeze, extreme weather. These trees have endured through the eons. Your image captures that well.
Live the others, The inclusion of the tree and lucky raven are a big bonus.
No nits or suggestions. Good catch by Glenys and the tilting clouds!
Love the image Bill, I noticed the clouds in the background as well but I see that was already brought up and you modified it. I love the look of the tree, and it certainly speaks to a wind-swept mountain top. The smaller tree with the crow is icing on the cake.
When I first viewed this I thought I saw noise in the sky but caught that you shot this on film. Very nice work and great image.
I quite like this as the tree is so graphic with those outstretched; it makes me wonder what stories and sights it has seen in it’s lifetime. I also very much like the gradation of color in the sky as it makes it’s way from left to right across the image. Of course the bird is the icing on the cake for me. I also like the revision with the straightened horizon. My only suggestion; more of a small nit; would be to remove that thin limb poking up into the sky on the tree on the left. It is probably just me as no one else has mentioned it. Anyway this is an evocative image.
