Giant Roots

Megan, this is not a bad idea at all!

 

With such material you can do very good macros focusing some interesting part of the wood, for example some pattern or texture that is special.

 

Or you can make good scene photos using the special object, in this case the root, as the main thing in the photo. In this case, from what I can see, we have the brown wood of the root and the fresh green of the trees around. It could look great have the root as the only brown object in all that green.

 

Keep well and best (photographic) wishes!

Nick, I would make a macro, except that this photo is taken at a small resolution, so doing so wouldn't work out very well. Great idea though. I have to start thinking more about cropping photos to make smaller, and more interesting shots. Thanks for the idea. Megan

Megan,

 

You've stumbled on one of the subjects I've found most challenging to shoot. Complex scenes like this tend to look cluttered, flat, or without a clear subject focus unless several elements fall into place. When you're standing in front of the scene, your eye, viewing this in 3D, can appreciate the twists and turns, the exaggerated lines and shapes etc. When viewed 2 dimensionally, much of that is lost. The trick is finding the right shooting angle, having precisely the right light to add dimension without creating too much contrast, and determining the right DOF. While there's no formula, I tend to use a shallower DOF in woodland scenes. It helps isolate what I feel are the most important compositional elements. Low side lighting (or dense fog) can also help. Your added challenge here was the snow and deep shadows. That's a tonal range I don't quite know how to deal with. My advice is to keep experimenting. Push your shooting angles and exposures to extremes. Find and isolate scenes within the scene to tell your story or convey your impressions. In this scene, I might have moved in much closer and worked witht he roots on the bottom right. I like the smaller roots coming off the larger roots at a diagonal. They're also standing out against the deeper shadow area behind them. Anyway...just some thoughts.

Thanks so much for taking the time to comment. It's a great honor to have you critique my photos. I will take all your suggestions into consideration any other time I attempt to photograph scenes like this one. If I do remember correctly there was a fence infront of the tree, which prevented me from getting closer. At the time when I took this, I wasn't seriously into photography, and was on a vacation taking snapshots. Now, I see everything like it would look like through a camera.

 

I do not think of your comments as thoughts, its wisdom.

 

Megan

Your thoughts on this image are greatly appreciated. Thank-you.

Megan

I see Laurie beat me to the punch. So, I'll just ditto what she stated.

 

Knicki

Thanks Knicki! :)