Long Canyon is a 400 - 500 foot deep chasm on the Burr Road. The walls are mostly within a few degrees of straight up, maybe 200 feet apart at points, and of a deep orange color. I pulled off and started looking for images. There were a number of Pine and some Junipers on the rockfall piles lining the cliffs. Most compositions were forced or too busy for the w/a lens so I put on the telephoto. In the process of steadying the camera on the tripod I happened to frame this by accident. Upon looking through the viewfinder I was struck how the top branch of this 30 foot plus pine looked like a Bonsai. The branches showing on both sides didn’t bother me. I adjusted the DOF to drop the BG out a bit to emphasize the tree. I probably wouldn’t have shot this if the diagonals on the wall were going in the other direction.
Processed in LR, using masking to emphasize the branch tips and to open up the branch detail.
Specific Feedback Requested
All honest feedback welcomed.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
ISO 400, 200 mm, f/4.5, 1/250.
Very much like a bonsai. Leaving the rock wall OOF was a good choice. You could try lowering the luminance value of reds and oranges and see if it works to isolate the branches more. I think the color saturation looks natural. Agreed that the diagonals work better in this direction. Well seen and chosen.
This does indeed look like a bonsai. The out of focus background works really well for the separation. And the color looks about right as I recall. That Long Canyon was probably my favorite location on my only Utah trip. As you say, the place seemed full of potential but isolating a good composition I thought was challenging.
Really beautifully processed color here, the colors have a lot of vitality without being overdone.
My only nitpick is that I wish there was slightly more breathing room on the left, it feels slightly cramped there. But I don’t know what lies beyond the frame edge, there may be a reason you did this.
I took @Kris_Smith idea of bringing out the branches more. I dropped the background down in tone just a bit and then worked on defining the tips of the branches more.
@Ed_McGuirk, there was no opportunity to climb up and lop off the branch on the left (jk) so I opted to use the edge of the frame. Showing it more would have added an additional form to the image.
Hm…maybe a tiny bit too far. Looks like the orange in the trunk was affected as well. You could try masking to put it in the wall only. I like the detail in the branches though. You could play with color masking to bring that out even more selectively.
