Making Lemonaid........

[wolfnowl]

Nice shot!

Unfortunately, your link doesn't work, though...

Mike.

[francois]

Unfortunately, your link doesn't work, though...

Correct link is http://www.lin-evans.net/dpreview/inthemist.jpg

About the photo: I love it!
Francois

[Lin Evans]

Here's another frame which gives a totally different feeling...

Lin

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

I like the first shot best (very much, in fact), but I agree with Bobtrips: darkening the rocks a bit would help the eye focus on the tree and make it more dramatic.

The rocks do add a lot: as the eye enters from the upper left, it naturally follows the reverse S-curve of the rocks, like a path which leads right to the base of the tree, which then leads you up again.

Great "lemonade"!

Eric

[Lin Evans]

Sadly, today a hiker found Jeff's Christiansen's body (our missing ranger) - no real details yet but it appears he died from a fall.

It's the first Ranger fatality in over 90 years of the history of RMNP, but it points out the dangers of traveling alone on the high country trails. Perhaps the National Parks Service will institute changes so that at least two rangers will make these patrols together in the future. Who knows - perhaps had Jeff had a companion for the trip help may have been available much sooner and he may have survived....

Lin

[Bobtrips]

I like your framing and your subject brings a lot of tension (is that the correct word?) to the image.

But the background rocks are so bright that they intrude a bit too much for my tastes.  What if you were to darken them a bit?

[Lin Evans]

Thursday this week brought rain and mist to the Colorado Rockies in Rocky Mountain National Park. One of our local rangers, Jeff Christiansen 31, an experienced mountaineer went out on a routine patrol in a rather dangerous area he had not patrolled before and has been missing now for six days and nights. Over 140 searchers, five helicopters, trackers with dogs, etc., have been combing the rugged high altitude terrain with no success. The fear is that he fell and was injured or worse, but searching this high altitude mountain area is very difficult and it's possible to literally walk within 50 feet of someone and not see them. My wife and I decided to do our part to help, but the heavy, low lying clouds and mist on Thursday precluded any chance of looking so I decided instead to photograph an old Bristlecone Pine I've been eying for several years.

It's in a rather easy location to reach in good weather, but adjacent to percipitous cliffs and potentially dangerous with wet, slick footing. The mist and low dense clouds gave a flat, even lighting which rendered an erie and somewhat supernatural appearance with moss covered rocks as a backdrop making the whole scene rather resemble something from a page of Grimms Fairytails....

Lin

Link to full sized image for anyone interested:

http://www.lin-evans.net/dpreview/inthemist.jpg

[Lin Evans]

Hi Mike, Bob, Francois,

Francois - Thanks for correcting the link. Actually, I thought I had it corrected but my broadband has been in and out and apparently failed right after I made the link correction. It's still "flakey" so I'm not sure if this post will "take" or not....

Bob, - yes the moisture on the rocks has brought out the strong moss colors and the tree would stand out better if the backdrop had less luminosity. I'll try to pull another frame and post it with the sky rather than the rocks behind the tree. I took several "perspectives" on this tree by climbing below and above it and shooting from different positions. Actually the changes are dramatic from one frame to another showing that what we eventually end up with in our frames has as much to do with camera position and the photographer's "vision" as with "reality."...

Best regards,

Lin

[Bobtrips]

Personally I like the second post a lot better.  Your subject is more dominate - the first image is a bit of a "Where's Waldo" for me.

Unfortunately you loose some of the dramatic limbs from the first shot.  

Too bad you didn't take your cherry picker along for (my) best angle.   Or perhaps had arranged for the clouds to part and bathe the tree with sunlight.  

I do enjoy seeing the same subject shot from different angles.  It serves to remind me to move around more, consider more ways to shoot.

[boku]

Lin - this is all quite striking. Very graphic.

Did you try any renderings with less sharpening? I'm seeing heavy edges. That is an interesting effect if that's what you intended.

[Lin Evans]

Lin - this is all quite striking. Very graphic.

Did you try any renderings with less sharpening? I'm seeing heavy edges. That is an interesting effect if that's what you intended.

No, I converted from RAW with some presets I use for low contrast scenes like this which preps them for print. At 100% on-screen the edge contrast is considerably exaggerated, but by the time prints are rendered the effect is considerably ameliorated. If I print larger than about 11x17 I use no sharpening on conversion and do all final after interpolation adjusting for the details of the individual image and desired effects, but for screen display I generally just use my defaults for low contrast detailed scenes which helps separate foreground and background.

Best regards.

Lin