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Out today

Mike Shimwell

New member
I went out today with the girls and dog to a local wood that has recently been harvested. I took a few pictures on the way round, but I keep coming back to this one. The brightness and emptiness, and road leading to the distance attracted me, together with the surviving tree - which makes a stand against the remaining woods being deciduous and not an evergreen pine.

Canon 5D and 50 1.4.

Mike


3982282408_f255c02a64_o.jpg
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
...The brightness and emptiness, and road leading to the distance attracted me, together with the surviving tree - which makes a stand against the remaining woods being deciduous and not an evergreen pine.
Like in: "East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet".
I like it Mike for the same reasons you have stated. Thanks for showing.

Cheers,
 

janet Smith

pro member
Hi Mike

I like this, I like the empty but inviting path, the sort of place I like to walk, and yes the solitary tree makes it work, well seen....
 

Mike Shimwell

New member
Thank you all, I've made a small print tonight on Ilford Gold Fibre Silk and will try a bigger one when I buy a new roll. It prints nicely and having seen it on the GFS I think I'll stick with that for this one rather than the PhotoRag Bright that I'd originally imagined.

Another for fun...

Mike

3982282950_8344ec1a5e_o.jpg
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
;82206 said:
I went out today with the girls and dog to a local wood that has recently been harvested. I took a few pictures on the way round, but I keep coming back to this one. The brightness and emptiness, and road leading to the distance attracted me, together with the surviving tree - which makes a stand against the remaining woods being deciduous and not an evergreen pine.


3982282408_f255c02a64_o.jpg


Mike Shimwell The Surviving Tree

Mike,

This picture shows the mouth a wide earthen roadbed curving slightly to the left and narrowing into the distance to the horizon. By the laws of nature and following perhaps the most dominant even universally understood metaphor, "life as a journey", we are lead to follow this path. Just to be sure we cannot make an error, essentially the entire lower border is the compulsory entrance to the path and the world of the image. That's the dominant feature.

I have watched as people have commented on this picture and remained troubled that everyone seems content that the main subject is the tree, because that was the background given and the intent.

There's another remarkable feature of this photograph, hardly even seen on any other picture I can remember. The clouds are below the featured tree. This alone is a major eye catcher. The tree on the left? Well, if there was no description of it, we'd never know it was that important. Still, I do like the image and its stark simplicity. So I thought, likely it's conceptualized well but, perhaps, not framed optimally for its presentation to those not having been there and realized that just this one tree was remained after felling so many others. Since there are no tree trunks strewn on the ground, no carts or trucks overflowing with cut down branches, we do not know about any clearing of wood from looking at the picture or that the tree on the left is in any way important.


3982282408_f255c02a64_o_AK copy.jpg


Mike Shimwell The Surviving Tree, Edits ADK

I hope you might consider this version a possible approach. I took the liberty of giving myself a challenge. Could more attention be given to the one important tree. Can we move the eye off the dominant pathway that passes your tree, as if, by coincidence. Many alterations didn't work. For example, adding or enhancing clouds could draw the eye away from the path but not to the tree. So that failed. Adding a lot of sky above seemed was useful, but the centrality of the path remains too dominant. Then I thought of making the path asymmetrical but extend the sky at the same time, keeping it empty. That shifts the eyes up to nothing and then naturally back to the tree on the left. At least, that's my idea. So I edited your image, cropping away the right side. Perhaps, now, the tree is a little more important. Anyway, that's my try. Adding some birds might add further emphasis on this area of the picture.

Asher
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Hi Mike and Asher
Though I like the original, Asher's edit is interesting and maybe more powerfull.
However in Asher's version, these grey clouds have been lightened hence lessened… I liked them, there are on the original like a dot on the "i", something like the discrete final touch. I'd like to have it kept…
For me they are as important as the tree on the left, as always a question of balance…
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Thank you all, I've made a small print tonight on Ilford Gold Fibre Silk and will try a bigger one when I buy a new roll. It prints nicely and having seen it on the GFS I think I'll stick with that for this one rather than the PhotoRag Bright that I'd originally imagined.

Another for fun...

Mike

3982282950_8344ec1a5e_o.jpg
Yes fun, but we're missing the dog!
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi Mike and Asher
Though I like the original, Asher's edit is interesting and maybe more powerfull.
However in Asher's version, these grey clouds have been lightened hence lessened… I liked them, there are on the original like a dot on the "i", something like the discrete final touch. I'd like to have it kept…
For me they are as important as the tree on the left, as always a question of balance…
Nicolas,

Thanks for the comment! I try to tackle problems, not because I necessarily have the right solution but because ignoring obvious difficulties and just saying how good things are does not move us ahead. The clouds were not meant to be diminished in any way. I just had to pull one PSD file from my G5 and Macbook Pro before they went into the Apple genius Bar hospital! I guess that I used one of the descendants of the clouds! Oops. Maybe you might be able to put the good clouds back!

Thanks my friend!,

Asher

My G5 had had a heart attack and needs a new logic board and airport card and I guess it gave what it had to the Macbook Pro since it needs a new logic bard and also all the ports on the right! Why can't they just give me a new set of computers!!!
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
the Macbook Pro since it needs a new logic bard and also all the ports on the right! Why can't they just give me a new set of computers!!!

Sorry Mike to hijack your thread, but this is an important issue for MacPro owners!

Asher
have a read at this:
MacBook Pro: Distorted video or no video issues

Symptoms
In July 2008, NVIDIA publicly acknowledged a higher than normal failure rate for some of their graphics processors due to a packaging defect. At that same time, NVIDIA assured Apple that Mac computers with these graphics processors were not affected. However, after an Apple-led investigation, Apple has determined that some MacBook Pro computers with the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor may be affected. If the NVIDIA graphics processor in your MacBook Pro has failed, or fails within three years of the original date of purchase, a repair will be done free of charge, even if your MacBook Pro is out of warranty.

What to look for:

Distorted or scrambled video on the computer screen
No video on the computer screen (or external display) even though the computer is on
Specific products affected:

MacBook Pro 15-inch and 17-inch models with NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processors
MacBook Pro (17-Inch, 2.4GHz)
MacBook Pro (15-Inch, 2.4/2.2GHz)
MacBook Pro (Early 2008)
These computers were manufactured between approximately May 2007 and September 2008
Products Affected
MacBook Pro, models with NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processors
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377?viewlocale=en_US
My MacBook pro just comes back from Apple for a free change of the motherboard…
 

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Mike, I do not know why but I feel sad when I look at this picture! Seems ( actually true ) that one is
embarking on a one way journey and apprehensive about what shall be there.

The forlorn tree, to me, signifies that we walk alone..the harvested forest, on the other hand, gives me some cheer that I might not be alone. But that end of the path...

I shall come back to this pic quite a few times, I am sure.

Why do I feel sad?

Best.
 

Mike Shimwell

New member
Mike, I do not know why but I feel sad when I look at this picture! Seems ( actually true ) that one is
embarking on a one way journey and apprehensive about what shall be there.

The forlorn tree, to me, signifies that we walk alone..the harvested forest, on the other hand, gives me some cheer that I might not be alone. But that end of the path...

I shall come back to this pic quite a few times, I am sure.

Why do I feel sad?

Best.


Fahim

Thank you for your comment. I knew it was a sad picture and even though I am pleased with it (in terms of Maris' comments in Rachel's bokeh thread), I cannot imagine it on the wall for that reason. I agree with your interpretation in fact - the long walk alone, and the harvest at the end being a thing of hope? Big things to find in a picture, but there when I framed it none the less. Interestingly, I was not at all sad when I took this, but the sense of the image was there in any case.

Some other thoughts that occurred to me were that it needed to be shot on digital as it is important that it is really clean when printed. I think the texture resulting from 35mm film at least would have reduce it's impact. Also, the post is quite simple, but I was very careful with the light, white balance and saturation as these all contributed significantly to it. My fear was that I was too close, which you have kindly allayed.

Thanks

Mike
 

Mike Shimwell

New member
Asher and Nicolas,

Thank you for your efforts. The loss of saturation and the diminishing of the clouds in your first edit Asher rather his your intent, but Nic's update reveals a very different picture from the original framing. I think that you are correct that the revised image moves attention away from the path and towards the tree, which leads me to acknowledge that I underplayed the path's importance in my original discussion, with the tree becoming a balancing or counterpoint. Whilst I am aware of the significance of paths in imagery, I am still shocked at how many of my pictures featuer paths that creep in without thought!

Mike
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I think that you are correct that the revised image moves attention away from the path and towards the tree, which leads me to acknowledge that I underplayed the path's importance in my original discussion, with the tree becoming a balancing or counterpoint. Whilst I am aware of the significance of paths in imagery, I am still shocked at how many of my pictures featuer paths that creep in without thought!
Thanks Nicolas for putting the picture to where I had intended. I am still without my G5 tower and MacBook Pro. They are replacing the logic board and the ports on both sides as well as the airport card.

I enjoy the friendship here that allows us to risk showing our work and also to dare stick our necks out with definite criticism based on our individual takes of each other's work. Thanks Mike for being so open minded.

Asher
 
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