Beech trees are among my favorites to shoot in the hardwood forests of New England. While their leaves turn a nice shade of yellow in autumn, it 's the tendency of Beeches to retain some of their leaves through winter that really makes them one of my favorite trees. The warm splash of color from Beech leaves can add some extra vitality to the otherwise white and gray winter landscape. After a fresh snowfall, I wandered through a forest near my home until I found this Beech.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
All comments and critique are welcome
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
Ed, this is a very nice intimate look at the splash of color the Beech brings to an otherwise bare forest. We also have Beech in my area and I have found them challenging to compose as they usually are in the dense chaos of the forest. The background of the conifer here helps isolate this subject nicely. I also like the that you resisted the temptation to increase the gold tones and these look spot on to my eye. The only nit I have is the bottom of the scene seems a bit unbalanced. I do not have a suggestion beyond a bottom crop and I do not think that will be an improvement. I am interested to see what others have to say.
Ed,
Great mix of autumn leaves and the transition to winter. Agree with most all Alan’s comments, including a crop off the bottom. The trunk, while adding context and a bit of an anchor, isn’t really adding much, nor are the more clumpy snow covered little trees at the bottom.
But then Alan also isn’t sure a crop would make this better and I agree. These are so, so difficult in trying to present order from chaos. I’m just not sure there’s enough of any repeating element, structure to control the random chaos. So in the end my eye wonders around the frame looking for something.
I do like the colors and the contrast with the snow; processing looks good.
Lon
He said it better than I can.
I agree with the crop suggestion. The dominating beech leaves are everywhere in the upper 3/4 and totally absent below. That’s where the imbalance feels to me.
I do feel that the image has potential structure. The central trunk with branches radiating out is a good strong structure. However, it’s being somewhat lost with the abundance of those colored leaves. If there were fewer leaves scattered about as in the ulc the composition would look less chaotic. That’s my take on this.
But this is really close to being a fine image. The colors, the snow outlined branches, the dark brown trunk, that dark bg, are all excellent elements. Elements waiting to be packaged.
BTW Eliot Porter agreed with you about the attractiveness of these winter leaves. He had several images as I recall.
@Alan_Kreyger @Lon_Overacker @John_Williams @Igor_Doncov Thanks for your comments, I agree that some cropping would tighten this up a bit. Hopefully this re-work addresses some of the issues mentioned above. again, thanks for stopping by to comment on this image. This winter has been a pretty strange one here, lots of cold but not so much snow, so not the most productive photographically (other than ice abstracts). I pulled this one out of the archives because I so enjoy seeing the golden beech leaves in the dull gray/white winter landscape.
@Lon_Overacker “Great mix of autumn leaves and the transition to winter” Lon, younger beech trees actually retain some of their leaves for much of the winter, this shot was taken in a late January or February snowfall, not in the transition period from autumn to winter.
