MY Turf!

[Dick_Knudson]

Tuned up re-post. Thanks @Harley_Goldman

I tend to anthropomorphize a bit, but I see an action story in just about every nature scene … OK maybe slow-motion action. The challenges this City Of Rocks juniper overcame over the decades are both incredible to imagine, and easy to perceive in its torturous stem. The forms and lines of the rocks are, I think, the features that make this an above-average photo, at least by the standards of my work, as they give the image some energetic visual motion.

Specific Feedback Requested

Any and all.
I tried this as monochrome but could not get the tree to separate from the busy rockscape. Any ideas?

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
Canon 5DIII EF24-106 f/4 @ 35mm f/14 ISO 640 AP
The native lighting was very flat and cool, so I worked with luminosity in Photoshop a lot to develop the contrast needed for the rock forms and lines … masks, burn, curves, history brush, the whole toolkit. Sharpened with Topaz Sharpen AI, and some with PS Smart Sharpen. Flipped from original.

This is a BW version. Maybe this scene is just too textured for monochrome.

[Harley_Goldman]

Beautiful light on the rock and tree. Hard to say what it is at web size, but there is a kind of fuzzy green glow on the far right side of the tree and some more redish fuzziness on the right of the left branch. Maybe just part of the tree in the shade or ? I would eliminate the bright sliver along the top edge toward the left. Definitely the color version for me. I agree about the tree lacking separation in the B&W.

[John_Williams]

I’ll echo the light on the rocks is beautiful. It looks like challenging conditions to get that tree to stand out, but I really like what it adds to the scene, and vote for the color version too.

I too see some haloing around the top of the tree; that would be worth removing. I’d also be tempted to brighten the vegetation on the tree a bit more to give it a little more contrast.

[Dick_Knudson]

Thanks - looks better with those tune-ups