Single Tree in the Palouse

I really appreciate everyone's comments.  I'm seeing this particular tree in photos from other photographers.  Here's a very nice example from Rick Lundh:

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=11099551

An extraordinary beautiful shot. The colour, the undulations and above all the textures are truly fantastic, well worth your troubles...Regards

It really is the gorgeous lighting conditions and composition that make this sing; and sing it does!  Beautiful, beautiful photograph, my friend!  This is the kind of light we all love to find.  Well done, Stephen!  Cheers!  Chris

Very Yin Yang!

Lovely shot.

(By the way, stitching 500mm's? There should be wider lenses for your camera, shouldn't there?)

Suggestions were asked. You might want to play with the shot / crop to see if you could emphasize the yin-yang-ness of the picture.

All the best, Matthijs.

Matthijs, thanks for the comment.  As I understand the yin-yang concept, I'm afraid I can't see it in my own photo.  Sometimes I like to stitch photos just to have more detail in the photo.  If I had this to do over again, I'd take more than two photos so that I could have more real estate to work with (crops and composition, as you have suggested).

Well... what I meant is that there's a dark part and a light part and a sinuous line that seems to separate them.

(Shadow vs grass with stream and road as divider.)

Still, yin-yang or not it's a lovely picture to stare at.

O.k., I see what you mean -- thanks for the perspective.

Beautiful light! I hope I can photograph this area some day...my brother has been there to photograph it many times. I love the way the light plays with the undulating hills. Very well done. Thank you for sharing. :)

Excellent pro work..

I love the placement of the tree and your subtle play on light and shadow. I have always found the sight of a singular tree a very powerful image that speaks a deep sense of security and peace to my soul.

Frank G Heron 

So, that is the  way it  looks  like in the spring. Beautiful light  excellent composition.

Cheers;  Bela

As Alf said in his comment, this landscape has a 'fabric look'.  This was my first impression when I looked at this image, the shadows and textures do resemble a blanket.  The tree is an amazing focal point, every element in this image works to draw the viewer in and hold the viewer's attention.

Beautiful!

Jim

Everything is perfect: composition and light. Best wishes. Evgeni

Stephen, This is an excellnt capture of light and form, and backlit tree. From the composition and communication viewpoints I am less impressed and don't consider it in the same category of some of your other very fine works.

Why? The undulating forms of pasture on the left are an incomplete statement for me, running off the left of the frame and promising something we cannot see and only imagine (which may be your goal though). I also find the upper left road and its continuity into the stream or irrigation ditch interesting but inconclusive with its running off into the right of the image.  I'm sorry to be odd man out in this appraisal, but I feel it to be a well photographed but an aesthetically unsettling image for me.  I would like to emphasize that this is an exception for me in regard to your work with nature, which I very much enjoy for their particular genre and for your experienced insight and that often surprised me.

I like the composition you've chose, colors are amazing here, also the hills shadows are so wonderful, best regards.Nima

HI Stephen.. reminds me of an apron on what would be the finest golf course in the world.. amazing intensities of light... take care samme

Arthur, sorry for being so late in replying to your comment (which was much appreciated; critical comments make me think about my own photography more thoroughly).  For me, the main reason for the photo is the tree -- that's the central element.  The undulating hills also add a lot of interest for me, but they are supporting characters.  If I had included more of them, the biggest problem would be deciding where to end; I could have gone to the left for a very long distance.  The fact that I had captured some of the shadowed hills (with texture) was sufficient for me.  I was concerned about getting that curve in the road above and to the left of the tree; that actually determined where the left edge of the frame would be (rather than where the rolling hills should end).  Regarding the ditch, it was just there.  I'm not crazy about its proximity to the right edge.  I think the photo would have been just fine without it, although perhaps it helps frame the right edge and keep the eye within the frame.  If I had gone much more to the right, I would have been running into shadows, and I don't think that would have been good.  Finally, I'm using a fixed focal length lens at a long distance, so I didn't have the luxury of a zoom or movement to help shape the composition.  Considering the difficulties I have in getting a sharp photo with a 500mm lens, I'm still amazed at the detail every time I look at this particular photo.  Anyway, that's my thinking behind my photo in response to the issues you raised.  Thanks for commenting.

Also, thanks to the many others who expressed their thoughts on different aspects of this photo.

a truly wonderful image. i particularly like the waves of the green field, looking as they do a little like a rumpled table cloth. The silver band of the brook taking your eye to the single tree is most beautiful.

All in all, a fab. image

 Bert

Well done!

I so love the detail in the landscape. Lovely colours, light and tonality. I do feel a longing to see a little more of what is copped out from above. The road that ends in the hill feels like something worls being included.

take a good composition.thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the comments.  Starvy, any higher would have quickly run into sky, and I didn't want that.

This was somewhat of an odd shooting situation, as I was using a 500mm lens at a very long distance, and it wasn't until I got back home that I saw the possibility of doing some stitches to get a reasonable composition.  I usually plan stitches while I'm taking the pictures, but this time I just had to see if I had enough single photos with enough overlap that stitch could be made.  I thought there was, and this is what I got.  The 2:1 aspect ratio is one of my favorites for a lot of photos.

Fantastic!

http://s05.flagcounter.com/count/ZWq/bg=FFFFFF/txt=000000/border=CCCCCC/columns=4/maxflags=12/viewers=0/labels=0/ http://2.s05.flagcounter.com/count/ZWq/bg=FFFFFF/txt=000000/border=CCCCCC/columns=4/maxflags=12/viewers=0/labels=0/

Beautiful colours and composition. Well done.