I came across this scene near the base of an old rockfall at about 1000m. Felt very sorry for the tree so I thought I should at least record its struggle.
Any comments gratefully received.
1/125s, f16, ISO 400
Nikon 50 mm f1.4
LR, PS for tonal adjustments and a little cropping and sharpening
Hi Phil G. This is a terrific composition. I like how the roots/trunk of the tree wraps around the rocks. While the scene is quite busy, you’ve managed to present some order in the chaos. I also think the out of focus background works to separate the top of the tree. Well done.
Hey Phil! This is a really cool shot and composition. The direction of flow and the way you’ve used the chaotic lines to create cohesion is really nice. My only critique would be to play around with some dodging and burning to further emphasize that beautiful composition. The tree trunk could be slightly brighter or the surrounding rocks slightly darker so the eye goes to the trunk even more than it does now.
@Phil_G This is exactly what I was going to say. It might be cool to do this in a bit of a gradient effect so that it appears at the bottom of the frame as if the two are very tonally similar and then as it progresses from bottom to top the tree becomes more prominent by brightening it or darkening the rocks around it.
I think this image records well the story of this tree. It even has an emotional impact. The composition is fairly busy though and much of that comes from the collection of rocks on the left side by the edge of the frame. I might crop into those big dark boulders on the left rather than trying to preserve their outline.
I also echo what @David_Johnston about playing around with some dodging and burning. I think because of the chaotic nature of the scene you could try and enhance the lines of the tree root and the three trunk to better define this trees struggles. Also, the rock debris on the left side of the image is quite a bit brighter than the right side of the image. Really a cool capture and I love the tonal range in this. Great light too.
Thankyou David, David, David, and Igor for your comments and suggestions. I’ve posted an edit to improve (I hope) the contrast between tree and rocks and I see that as a significant improvement.
I’ve thought a lot about Igor’s suggestion. Before posting the original image I did try a crop as you suggested Igor, but thought that it removed the emotional aspect of tree versus rockfall. However I looked at a crop again as you suggested.
I now see that the image is hugely improved but without such a strong association with the rockfall. This has made me realise that, within the mind, a strong emotional attachment to time, place, and situation or circumstances relating to a particular image can create a blinkered vision of the overall scene and further processing of the image then reflects that. Other viewers of the image do not have necessarily share that vision and see it in differently.
I can now see that when emotional blinkers are removed, many images can be greatly improved. Thankyou very much for that Igor.
I didn’t mean such a drastic crop but this works. You’ve simplified the image and that usually makes the point more clearly. In my opinion the point is the wrapping around of the trunk around the rock in the manner a snake would as it moves. The tree as a snake is how I see this image.
Very interesting scene. Love the new version as well. I would try cooling down the white balance just a tad to get some more warm/cool color separation in the scene, as well as selectively warming up the highlights and further cooling down the shadows. Those boulders could look nice slightly more blue.
Thanks Eric. Yes I like that…gives much better separation.
