Trees, sparse stands, forrest, lone proud beauties. Colorado Aspens to challenge you!

[Bill McCarthy]

Here is a B&W from 2005,

Bill McCarthy: Untitled

2005​

I've always liked this tree.

Bill

 

[Asher Kelman]

Here is a B&W from 2005,

Bill McCarthy: Untitled

2005​

I've always liked this tree.

Bill

Yes, Bill, this is unique. What's happening with the ? fallen tree trunk? Is that what it is?

Asher

 

[Bill McCarthy]

Yes, Bill, this is unique. What's happening with the ? fallen tree trunk? Is that what it is?

Asher

Asher,
As I recall, it was a limb that fell from the main tree. I remember that I was on a lower spot below the tree and I liked getting a ground level view which for me, gave the tree a majestic and all powerful feel, like a sentinel watching over the rest of the forest. While I don't see my photographs as telling a story, in the eyes and mind of the viewer, (we imagine) there is always something going on. I liked the downed limb because it compositionally created tension with the saplings on the left and anchored me visually in a way that kept me from permanently flying off the page. Thanks for looking.
Bill

 

[Asher Kelman]

Antonio, I like your sampling of what you see:

From my series "Trees"

Now, this first pair of images seem to belong together. We appreciate the grandness of the wooden form, on the left arching, over the vegetation in some poetic gesture. Then on the right, there's an eruption of delicate pink flowers

Here, the patterns of branching of one complements and balances the other.

​

They all seem to do better, IMHO, with a little zone of lightness around each one. There's something about art, "being art", a "performance" quality, perhaps, that benefits from a "stage" in which it can exert its influence and do its magic. So what do you think of the altered presentation with more white space around each of these 2 seta of pictures. Is it taking away something else I didn't recognize when you grouped them all so tightly together.

So now, which way do you think they should be shown. It could very well be that I am wrong separating them, as I have.

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

Along the trail

This is a HDR pano.

Tracy,

With the wooden path, there's a feeling we might get to a Japanese pagoda. Where is this place and what else would we find? Not often so we see the effort to make a dry path out of wood. The right side of the picture could have much more densely dark wood as on the left so that the center would be also a path of light. A great spiritual component you could consider here.

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

Asher,
As I recall, it was a limb that fell from the main tree. I remember that I was on a lower spot below the tree and I liked getting a ground level view which for me, gave the tree a majestic and all powerful feel, like a sentinel watching over the rest of the forest. While I don't see my photographs as telling a story, in the eyes and mind of the viewer, (we imagine) there is always something going on. I liked the downed limb because it compositionally created tension with the saplings on the left and anchored me visually in a way that kept me from permanently flying off the page. Thanks for looking.
Bill

Bill McCarthy: Untitled

2005​

Bill,

Yes indeed, it does seem that this large tree is a guardian and at his feet lies a valiant dead warrior, who fell in the battle. That's the drama of the picture that we, as viewers can allow to act in our minds.

Thanks for sharing,

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

Let's find trees in their natural beauty! So this is not for tree-lawn-pruned specimens, although an arboretum (where they really respect the trees shape) would be fine too as they will have remarkable examples, more diverse than we would otherwise be able to find.

Asher Kelman: Aspens

2008
​

........ I admire these trees and will return to photograph them again, but with film.

Asher

I decided to revisit my initial picture of this series. What I now realize, most important is the contrast between the forms of the white slender trunks and the mass of grass below marked with shadows. It might be that, in close ups like this, either the sky or the ground must be the partner of the trees, not the two of them together. So I've tried cropping away much of the bright sky shining through the leaves.

Asher Kelman: Aspens

Cropped to reduce element of sky, 2011
​

This seems far more tranquil as if we're lying on the ground. However, it does not seem to be intimate enough to the trees! I wondered about cutting the amount of grass!

Asher Kelman: Aspens

Cropped to reduce element of sky, 2011
​

Then I felt uncomfortable, because some elegance of the aspens had been lost. I returned to the original and then just removed a little sky, just enough to keep one's eyes on the tree trunks.

Asher Kelman: Aspens

Cropped to reduce element of sky, 2011
​

What I see now, expresses the mood we felt on this cold evening, high up, above the spring flowers, but below the residual snow of the harsh Colorado winter. This exercise shows how hard it is to present a picture, when one far way from that scene. It's good to shoot wider, I'm decided on that. Still, maybe less is a much richer statement!

Asher

 

[Don Ferguson Jr.]

Here is one from last fall and looking forward to the NC mountain color .
Don

 

[Don Ferguson Jr.]

My beaver pond is full of very busy beasts!

Bill McCarthy: Beaver Tree​

Bill, that is a cool shot and we had a beaver on our pond that did the same to a Poplar tree.
Don

 

[Sandrine Bascouert]

There's nothing like a good challenge to make me come back here (with an old photo though)

Hello y'all!

 

[Tracy Lebenzon]

Tracy,

> With the wooden path, there's a feeling we might get to a Japanese pagoda. Where is this place and what else would we find?

This is in a rain forest by Mt. Rainier. You can touch trees that were alive around the time Leonardo da Vinci painted. Mostly, one would find largely untouched forest land, lakes, and mountain peaks. Occasionally one may learn something about oneself.

> …so that the center would be also a path of light. A great spiritual component you could consider here.

Very interesting. I will have to ponder this. The forest itself is often considered nature’s temple and not a place of darkness (except, of course, after sunset) but rather mostly muted colors and just about every shade of green.

I wonder how many look at visual art that doesn't have overt religious icons and think about spirituality?

 

[Tracy Lebenzon]

I decided to revisit my initial picture of this series. What I now realize, most important is the contrast between the forms of the white slender trunks and the mass of grass below marked with shadows. It might be that, in close ups like this, either the sky or the ground must be the partner of the trees, not the two of them together. So I've tried cropping away much of the bright sky shining through the leaves.

[snip]

Then I felt uncomfortable, because some elegance of the aspens had been lost. I returned to the original and then just removed a little sky, just enough to keep one's eyes on the tree trunks.

Asher Kelman: Aspens

Cropped to reduce element of sky, 2011
​

What I see now, expresses the mood we felt on this cold evening, high up, above the spring flowers, but below the residual snow of the harsh Colorado winter. This exercise shows how hard it is to present a picture, when one far way from that scene. It's good to shoot wider, I'm decided on that. Still, maybe less is a much richer statement!

Asher

Asher,

This is a nice study in evolving ideas. It is a wonderful image and the composition is perfect. The groupings, light and dramatic shadows all work well. But your recent studies makes me wonder what it is about the top of the original image that you found distracting from what you were aiming to convey?

> It might be that, in close ups like this, either the sky or the ground must be the partner of the trees, not the two of them together.

I once heard the expression that trees live for the sky. I like it.

It takes an HDR photo and almost no breeze, a ND filter, or a dark day to capture all without the sky blowing out, but the aesthetic it is an accepted norm. In fact, and I've found it curious, but some complain bitterly when HDR is used.

The only thing I’d play with here might be to use a gradient filter or two darken or add faint color to the top part of the image, but this last interpretation is every bit as good as the first.

 

[Tracy Lebenzon]

Here is one from last fall and looking forward to the NC mountain color .
Don

This is Sweet!

 

[Jerome Marot]

A picture I took long ago:

 

[Asher Kelman]

Jerome,

So rich and well written. Where is this?

Asher

 

[Jerome Marot]

This was on the smallest of the Canary Islands.

This is from the same series:

I hope the image is not too cliché, I could simply not resist the light.

 

[Ruben Alfu]

A picture I took long ago:

Beautiful greens Jerome, and the trees look to me like a forest of bonsai.

Regards,

Ruben