Naked Tree in Morning Mist

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Taken with a Nikon digital camera. 35-mm equivalent settings 38-115 @ 51 mm. 1:4.1, 1/188 sec. Hand held.

Thanks in advance for any comments you may have.

-- Garry Schaefer (schaefer@pangea.ca), November 12, 1998

Answers

Garry: there is a good feel to this image. I wished you had more space on the RHS. I would have liked to see the full tree on the right edge and less space on the top. I think this would have given it more depth as well as a more balanced composition. Bahman

-- Bahman Farzad (cpgbooks@mindspring.com), November 12, 1998.

I agree with Bahman, although my first impression was to crop in from the right and the top as another way to strengthen the composition. The half tree is definitely looking lonely. I really like the exposure. The green tone offers a warm feeling against the cold looking tree and fog. I like it.

-- Robert Pailes (rpailes@peganet.com), November 13, 1998.

I also agree with Bahman's comments and would crop a bit off the top and include the tree on the right. But I like the stark sharpness of this tree contrasted with the misty background and the very subdued pastel colors of the grass and sky. Nice shot.

-- Barbara Kelly (kellys@alaska.net), November 13, 1998.

I particularly appreciated the comments regarding the tree on the right. I had versions taken with and without the tree and decided upon the one posted. Unfortunately the tree in questions was "photogenically" flawed by virtue of most of the branches on its right hand side being missing. My dilema was whether half a tree was better than no tree. While I'm not 100% certain, the consensus seems to be that no tree would have been preferred to the half tree that was used.

-- Garry Schaefer (schaefer@pangea.ca), November 14, 1998.

Just cropping with my hand on the screen, I can see why you included the tree on the right. If you had cropped it out; the remaining image is not strong enough. The distant tree echos the front tree, so there is an interesting relationship going on there. Too bad it was flawed as you said and you couldn't include more of it. The overall softness due to the fog is nice as are the muted colors.

-- Mike Green (mgprod@mindspring.com), November 16, 1998.


Garry, I have a suggestion for the next time. My experience, reading, and emotion when taking a shot like this is to fill the frame with the subject - the tree. I think that this is not the best solution because the subject is really the tree in its surrondings. If this same tree had been in the forest or on the edge, I suspect you would not have been tempted to take the shot. To some extent the subject is isolation. So my suggestion is to use the wide angle end of the zoom and try and isolate the tree in its loneliness. Alternatively, get further away and use the telephoto end of the zoom and again isolate the tree. This latter solution will allow you to leave out the tree to the right and include more fog between you and the tree. I suggest you have the tree no more than a third as high as the frame. Good luck. Dave Herr

-- David G. Herr (dgherr@uncg.edu), November 17, 1998.

Image taken down from web site. Thanks again for your comments.

-- Garry Schaefer (schaefer@pangea.ca), March 29, 1999.

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