Standing Tall in the Quiet Light

[TJ Avery]

This was taken in December in the Texas Hill Country:

I'm sorry, I've not been on the forums here in a while. Life has been quite busy. At least I had a little time to get out and shoot! There's more info about this photo and a little write-up on my blog (link below). Check it out if you're interested.

Now, I've got some catching up to do here on the forums...

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Hi TJ, or should I call you the stalker of light? ;-)

Welcome back, nice to see you posting again. This picture is quite nice although I have one issue with the foreground below the tree. I feel that it becomes a black mass which does not add much to the picture. Maybe you can crop a centimeter or so from the bottom?

Having said this, I saw even more impressing tree pictures in your blog. Please feel free to share them with us any time

Cheers,

 

[Asher Kelman]

This was taken in December in the Texas Hill Country:

I'm sorry, I've not been on the forums here in a while. Life has been quite busy. At least I had a little time to get out and shoot! There's more info about this photo and a little write-up on my blog (link below). Check it out if you're interested.

Now, I've got some catching up to do here on the forums...

TJ,

This is a wonderful sight. Tell me you have more of that sky. I love the way the clouds and golden pink streak sweeps down in a concave arc to the rlower right. I'd have loved to have seen that sky myself. What was it like? What else was there?

Asher

 

[TJ Avery]

Cem - Thanks for your comments. I appreciate that. I agree regarding the cropping. I'll give it a try.

Asher - Thanks! The sky had amazing clouds, but they did not catch the light completely. The sunset looked like it had a lot of potential, but it never fully "lit up".

Here are the shots leading up to it:

I was disappointed that the whole cloud pattern did not turn orange/pink/red. The shot just above was the peak of the colors. I guess that's "stalking the light"

So I focused on creating a photo that best captured the delicate interaction between the leafless trees and the great clouds. The last shot I took of the sunset (the shot I started this thread with) contained subdued sunset colors in an interesting curving pattern. Plus the moon is in the frame to help draw your eye upwards and balance with the brightest area near the horizon.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Join them! That's the challenge. That's what you'd do if you were painting! Unless you have a superwide camera, or several cameras together, one sometimes needs to do some stitching and blending. I'd use them all creatively for one great horizontal picture. now that's merely what my impulse would be but I'm energized that way. The other way is to return and be ready or else enjoy what is already there. Once there is a large matte around a great print, the brain will create anything missing anyway!

Thanks for adding to this presentation!

Asher