This is my first post in Weekly Challenge. Since my wife is a devoted jigsaw puzzler, I had to give this one a try. She says she would hate to see this as a puzzle, which is all that I needed to know. The repeating patterns of these spruce boughs reminded of Fractal patterns in mathematics.
I love the lighter colored tips here.
Ed, the blue tips really are the star of the show in this one! I was not familiar with “fractal mathematics”, but I did look it up. Thanks for your title prompting a little self tutoring on the subject.
I am so enjoying this, but I don’t think I would as a jigsaw puzzle, Ed. I too had to get educated on the fractal patterns of mathematics. This is a perfect image for this really nice WC we are having. I can’t think of an image I have that would be appropriate for it, but it looks like a lot of photographers do. Very well seen and captured.
A fine composition with beautiful colors and textures. You have a particular ability with close up intimates.
Fractals are patterns that keep repeating themselves the closer you get into them. Google “Mandlebrot formula”. Fractals are very commonly found everywhere in nature, and a favorite subject for me.
Ed,
Wonderful intimate of these spruce bows. I too love the lighter tips and actually the gradation of greens throughout. Very cool and a fabulous entry. This would be a challenging puzzle as well - but doable I think.
I’ve tried not to be nitpicky with colors/processing since this is such a subjective challenge and most are abstract and so all that goes out the window anyway… but a very minor suggestion would be to zero out the magenta saturation that comes out slightly in the bark of the exposed branches. Now that’s picky!
Let me ask you this, does she ever glue and hang her puzzles? Not sure how popular this is now, but many moons ago when I was young and we did jigsaw puzzles as a family, we would spread puzzle glue across the surface and then hang them. We had the walls leading to the basement lined with puzzles - like wall paper! I’ll never forget.
Ed, the mix of colors and shapes looks great. It would make a challenging, but doable puzzle. This is also a fine showing of how evergreen trees grow and their needles age.
Yes she does do that with some puzzles, and they end up competing with my prints for wall space in our home, luckily we rotate stuff periodically 
Great colors and patterns. The range of color is great. No suggestions here and it would make a tough puzzle, too.
Ed: Frame filling fantastic. Love the color palette and the details and patterns in the boughs. Top notch.>=))>
