For me, a lot of winter photography is about minimalism and with some fresh snow and temps in the 20s, I went out to see what I could find. This lovely little hornbeam (or possibly ironwood) sapling called to me. It’s about 18 inches high and had 8 leaves left. If you like this kind of thing, get ready because there’s more and it will continue until it melts. Probably in April.
Here’s an alternate version with the little trunk cloned out as per @Diane_Miller’s suggestion. I also flipped it back to how I found it, but flipped it horizontally because I like the flow better.
Lr processed - but really it didn’t need much. A flip and a crop. Some lowering of the shadows, a little boost in the whites, orange saturation, sharpening and a little cloning in Photoshop because there were some oddities in the snow. Probably because it was snowing.
Love the abstractness of this, Kris! Just wondering what you mean by a flip. I personally think it would look neat turned vertically with the branches going out towards the right… just my thoughts.
Lovely and special!! The white BG is perfect for the sparseness of the branches and the few remaining leaves, which are so well distributed. I love the composition with the two outside leaves gesturing back into the center.
Snow?? I’m in line to see more! I started to go outside today to rake leaves along 400 ft of roadside ditches. I decided it was too cold. It was 50 degrees. Waited till it warmed up to 60.
Thanks @Bonnie_Lampley, @Liz_Enslin, @Benj_Wadsworth, @Vanessa_Hill, @Paul_Breitkreuz & @Diane_Miller - glad it turned out as interesting as I thought it was when I stopped for it. It was the branches and the distribution of leaves some of you mention. Right now the snow is pretty pristine, but it will collect debris that I usually clone out, but I didn’t have to do that except with a falling flake.
I flipped it upside down, Vanessa. Just because I liked the idea of the branches reaching upward in the photo instead of downward as they were IRL. A tiny bit of artistic license.
Hmmm – I assumed the flip would have been horizontal. I flipped it back, vertically, and think the leaves look more natural hanging down, but the branch structure is a bit puzzling, as though you must have been standing straight over it, or it’s growing on the side of a bank.
Might be interesting to clone out the tiny trunk and brighten the hint of a tree well and have it floating in space…
Good idea - I put a second version in the OP. It certainly has a different feel - maybe a little melancholy because of the drooping leaves and branches. I was standing almost directly over it, btw.
Thanks, @Harley_Goldman - these kinds of shots lend themselves to experimentation and you can do a lot with them. When you say original orientation, do you mean my first shot or the second? The second is how the plant presented itself to me, the first is my flip of it upside down. See what I mean about how much you can play? I love it.
Thanks @David_Bostock - these kinds of images are my jam in the winter and since we have a dang lot of it, I get to play a lot. We just got about 10 inches of fresh powder so trees this small are completely buried now, but things change a lot over the course of the season so I’m sure I’ll find other cool things.
Kris: I’m super late to this party but I wanted to go through your series from the beginning. In one sense I envy you the snow but OTOH I only like snow when I choose to go to it rather than have to deal with it naturally. All of the images are great finds. On this I like the flipped version with the leaves pointing down but both work well for me. Nice job on working the conditions. >=))>
