Trees & the Motif of "Sky"!

[nicolas claris]

Here's the tree on as street corner near me.

It's covered in spikes so I guess this is to defend itself from herbivores or to act as a sanctury for birds that can escape predators.

Photo Asher Kelman 2008, "Spiked Tree"

There are 6 inch pods with bright red seeds that fall. I'll try to photograph these in due course.

Asher

Bonsoir Asher

Une belle composition! et en couleurs ! C'est ma fête !

But I would prefer: less clear sky, less details on the tree's trunk…


Hope you'll still speak to me! ;-)

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

I'd love you to print a crop to see how large this could be printed. This picture could give an immersive experience printed huge! That's if you didn't follow my surpising suggestions for cropping I'll now suggest!

I'd remove 1-1.5 cm from the top of the picture as the trees fading away is distracting. I'd rather have a sharp cutoff where the trunks are clearly defined and the ground underneath them has it's own atmosphere of autumn.

The picture is this best seen as a panoramq. "Horizontalness" is very tranquil and reassuring. Remarkably I'd ask to to consider drastic surgery to free the beauty of the picture to dominate the experience. forgive me, Cem, but I'd like to crop away the lower portion from 2 mm belelow the edge of the reflected green leaves on the right border.

This makes an impressive and magical panorama which is very original. All the elements of the picture are represented sufficiently. In an orchestra one balalnces the representation of all the great instruments. One only needs sufficient of each. I'd try the crop just to humor me and then print it out.

Hope you'll still speak to me!

Asher

Hi Asher,

It may take a while but yes, eventually I'll speak to you. ;-)

I have tried all sorts of crops but I am not happy doing anything more than this:

But it looks rather interesting if you turn it around, what do you think? LoL

Cheers,

 

[Asher Kelman]

I have been wanting to show this one for some time now. It's a picture I took a couple of years ago. I have been playing with it since then for achieving the perfect contrast and color balance but I am not there yet. I can't let it go either, this image is too captivating for me. Your advice will be greatly appreciated.

I'd like that huge, otherwise, well, here are my tentavie ideas. First, the crop as as suggested. I had to do it!

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Next the picture relit in the top left grove of trees!

I hope you might also like this version,

Asher

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

...I'd like that huge, otherwise, well, here are my tentavie ideas. First, the crop as as suggested. I had to do it!

Next the picture relit in the top left grove of trees!

Hi Asher,

We must have been posting at the same time. My crop is quite similar to yours. But I don't get what you mean my "relit" in the second one. I cannot see any differences between the two versions?

Cheers,

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Asher,
We must have been posting at the same time. My crop is quite similar to yours. But I don't get what you mean my "relit" in the second one. I cannot see any differences between the two versions?
,

Overlay them in Photoshop and you'll see the top left hand corner of trees light up. This will be more evident in a print.

Asher

 

[Steve Robinson]

Here's one from a winter trip to Yellowstone last February. Pentax K10D, DA* 16-50 f/2.8, 16mm, 1/500 @ f/4.5, ISO 100.

And another from last July above Alta, UT. K10D, DA* 16-50 f/2.8, 50mm, 1/750 @ f8, ISO 100.

 

[Antonio Correia]

Last week a challenge was launched to some local amateur photographers subjected to the theme: Reflections.
I headed to the park and shot some pictures with water, trees and sky.
Now it is Winter in Portugal and it is rather cold. Just some 12-14 degrees during the day. Not that bad regarding other places...
There is a small lake where there used to be some fishes but I could not see them at all...
The weather was clear and it was late in the evening.
I have done this shot and I have inverted it but I think it is too confusing because we can hardly understand that it is a reflection at all ...

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[nicolas claris]

Bonsoir Asher

Une belle composition! et en couleurs ! C'est ma fête !

If you don't mind me showing how I would prefer: less clear sky, less details on the tree's trunk…

Like this:

…
Hope you'll still speak to me! ;-)

Obviously you won't!

 

[Asher Kelman]

Obviously you won't!

Je t'en pris, mon très cher ami! Je vais toujours en parlez avec toi! Enfin, nous avons fait beaucoup ensemble moi et toi!

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

Here's one from a winter trip to Yellowstone last February. Pentax K10D, DA* 16-50 f/2.8, 16mm, 1/500 @ f/4.5, ISO 100.​

I'm happy to see more Pentax shots. The Pentax cameras are remarkable and made so well with a great series of compact prime lenses. You use the zoom and this covers a good range.

This, to me is a picture hidden in a photograph. This, IMHO, is a proto-picture. Processing should be tried in B&W or else worked on to emphasize the tracks in the snow. That's what carries the story and is most important but not emphasized. You will be amazed how dramatic this kind of image can look in B&W. I hope you might consider trying my suggestions. Just my $0.02, but I think worth more!​

 

[Asher Kelman]

Now it is Winter in Portugal and it is rather cold. Just some 12-14 degrees during the day. Not that bad regarding other places...
There is a small lake where there used to be some fishes but I could not see them at all...
The weather was clear and it was late in the evening.
I have done this shot and I have inverted it but I think it is too confusing because we can hardly understand that it is a reflection at all ...

​

But, Antonio, I love it! You've brought to us the essence of that view in the water. Its lack of certainty allows us to draw from our own rich experiences. Your work is a catalyst and guide for out experience. I'm now thinking that the best art narrows down our options for the realm of experience we have and then our trained sense can recruit the most powerful feelings, sentiments and passion to enjoy it as we have been led by the hand to a very special place. So thanks for taking us to a wonderful spot you found for your own pleasure and allowed us to come next to you.

Asher

 

[Steve Robinson]

Asher, is this what you had in mind? I made the conversion and fiddled with the curve on this exposure.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Asher, is this what you had in mind? I made the conversion and fiddled with the curve on this exposure.

Photo Steve Robinson ​

Hi Steve,

Thanks for allowing me to work within your image. I guess I have a lot of fantasy. This is a sketch of what I had in mind. For the title "Trees & Sky" I felt one could take creative liberty and add clouds that were surely nearby!

Photo Steve Robinson Edit ADK​

I didn't have clouds so I drew them. Still, I do just like that road with the snow tracks, going to somewhere, we don't know where!

Asher

 

[RoyVarley]

With a growth rate of 1 or 2 cm per year this grass tree is quite old.

 

[Mark Doodeman]

Tree, sky

Can't decide how I feel about this one. Overdone theme? Too much black?

 

[Rachel Foster]

I am pondering this one. I might like it. It was shot a few hours ago, ISO 400, f/8.0, 200mm, 1/1250 s, handheld, Rebel XTI, 70/200 lens.

 

[nicolas claris]

Hi Rachel
A nice tree at sunset. I like the colors to be alike a duotone but not really… I may have reinforced (saturated) a little bit the blue of the sky, it would marvelously fit to the orange/gold general tone…
I f possible I would have used a tripod for that kind of picture, hence:
no need for 1/1250
then no need for 400 ISO
then much less noise (which we cannot se on a small size for the web but that is surely seen on real size…

Thanks to ƒ8 the details of the tree and the sylky clouds are very well captured

When possible, 100 ISO is the king!

But a very nice picture indeed!

Happy new year!

 

[Antonio Correia]

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[Antonio Correia]

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[Asher Kelman]

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IMG]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3078/3149096613_1177e4a41f_o.jpg[/IMG]​

With a growth rate of 1 or 2 cm per year this grass tree is quite old.

Roy,

This tree is remarkable! What is the surrounding area? It would be great to have more pictures together with a defining background. It's so strange looking from California or even Europe as we have nothing like that around, to the best of my knowledge. It's obviously a monocotyledon and not a palm. So what family is is and what other such trees are around. Is see the "flower stalk". Is this there much of the time and are the trees heterosexual, use parthenogenesis, have one sex per tree or what?

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

I am pondering this one. I might like it. It was shot a few hours ago, ISO 400, f/8.0, 200mm, 1/1250 s, handheld, Rebel XTI, 70/200 lens.

Hi Rachel
A nice tree at sunset. I like the colors to be alike a duotone but not really… I may have reinforced (saturated) a little bit the blue of the sky, it would marvelously fit to the orange/gold general tone…
I f possible I would have used a tripod for that kind of picture, hence:
no need for 1/1250
then no need for 400 ISO
then much less noise (which we cannot se on a small size for the web but that is surely seen on real size…

Thanks to ƒ8 the details of the tree and the sylky clouds are very well captured

When possible, 100 ISO is the king!

But a very nice picture indeed!

Happy new year!

That's a very helpful critique, Nicolas!

Once one find the perfect scene, getting the most out of the camera is the next thing to do. It can be the difference between an interesting memory or having a file that is resilient to allow one to make an outstanding print.

Rachel,

Using even a light tripod, your camera will give you a much better picture using the optimal ISO as Nicolas suggest. The picture will be 10 times better. The shadows and highlights will be better writtten and the RAW files will be have more reserve for subsequent processing. It's greater dynamic range, better colors and decreased noise will pay back endlessly.

Now, my own ideas on your picture. The scene is beautiful. I always have the question of, "Do we have sufficient?" Here is a scene which is tranquil and therefore that's the quality we might want to maximize. So where possible, I'd look to see if more of the open sky and landscape can be recorded while we see it. Once you have a tripod, you can swing the camera to take adjacent pictures and if you so wish, arriving home inspired, you can stitch the pictures for an even more grand photograph. Just a thought!

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

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Hi Antonio,

I'm so pleased to see these picture. I love the scenes. I wonder are there others taken with a wider view? I have the feeling that we have not seen all of it yet! A picture should say of itself, "This is it, it's me!" I feel we are only seeing part of it. Am I mistaken? It could be just my own idiosyncratic and greedy point of view to want more.

Asher

 

[Rachel Foster]

The ISO point is one I'm going to be using! Thanks, both. The tripod is more difficult in the extreme cold, icy conditions we've been having but I'll use it when possible.

 

[Rachel Foster]

Antonio's 2nd shot has an eerie, otherworldly quality. That's the sort of image one could gaze at for a very long time.

 

[Antonio Correia]

Thank you both for the comments.
The first picture was shot from a boat in a lake some 275 kms away from Kuching, Borneo, Malaysia.
The Sun was shinning and the weather was fine.

But the other one - I don't know any more where it was but its was for sure also in Borneo - was done inside a forest. The weather was just fine when suddenly this mist came and begun to cover the top of the trees, invading the forest almost coming to us.
Amazing thing.
Very curious.
I shot some pictures but these are the best I could get.
I am in process of re-work some of them with LR.
Here is another one. Hope you like it

​

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Antonio,

How many did you take like that? I'd love to see them stitched together!

Asher

 

[Antonio Correia]

Hi Antonio, How many did you take like that? I'd love to see them stitched together! Asher

No. No. Sorry.

We were there in April 2006.
I was not a good photographer then. Well ... am I now ?

There are only a few of them and very similar. The mist went away quickly.
Oh come on, not that quickly ... LOL Just a dirty excuse ! LOL

At the time - even recently - I was too tied to 30/40 or 9/12 etc, certain formats.
I got myself free and now, I crop the way I feel.

Here is another one which is not that good. In a different place but still in Borneo.

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[Antonio Correia]

As I told before I am re-processing some old pictures.
After some search I found some I could stitched together.
It turned out to b not very different but I think it is better now.
Hope you like it.
Thank you for watching.

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[Antonio Correia]

Not trees but one artificial tree and sky.
Shot today, late evening in Lisbon.

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[Asher Kelman]

Tight Framing: Getting Seduced and Deluded by A stunning Scene!

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As I told before I am re-processing some old pictures.
After some search I found some I could stitched together.
It turned out to b not very different but I think it is better now.
Hope you like it.
Thank you for watching.

​

Hi Antonio,

Thanks for going to the trouble to dig up the pictures and then stitch them for us. It certainly make a large difference as we have some forground and the trees now and the mist all through the scene. I am not of fan of close cropping unless one is highly experienced. Pros can do it as that's what they do, knowing what the editor or they themselves need to deliver and get paid.

Once again: Close Framing for the Amateur/Enthusiast! The rest of us get seduced and intoxicated by the aura, sounds and beauty of a scene and we're so asilly deluded into excluding too much. This is one of the most common causes of a less than stellar image of an otherwise perfect scene for photography. So my advice, at lhe very least, is always to take pictures of the adjacent areas with some overlap so once home, and away from the influences of the scene, one can think and choose with a clear mind.

So, I'd say, unless you truly know that you are excluding only what is not needed, shoot wider. Then there's nothing wrong with exploring your scene afresh. An artistic photographer can do that without any shame! Is it better to shoot just what one will display? Of course! Then one can devote more pixels to the subject and spend less time cropping afterwards. Is it more noble? Answer that yourself!

Asher