This Weathered Pine

I have been spending some time up around the Emerald Lake area in

Rocky Mountain National Park and started to find some gems. Here is a

weathered pine...scarred from battling wind, snow, rain, avalanches, and

the occasional human. I had to snowshoe in about 1.5 hrs on fresh 8" of

snow from the previous day, with temps in the single digits, and winds

exceeding 50 mph once at the lake...then do a climb up a snow field

halfway up to the base of the wall at Flatop Mtn. I took a set of about 50

or so shots, but thought this one may be working well, even though a

small part of the tree touches the images border.

I took this one with a Nikon D700, Tokina 16-28 f/2.8, while trying to

keep the tripod steady at 16mm, ISO200, f/16, 1/125 sec...all between

severe gusts of wind. The one thing I love about this area is all the

reflective lighting. I think there is a little lens distortion, since I used a

WA, but many ot the trees are leaning "inward" in the direction of this

pine...you can also see the lake ice shoreline "just" in the middle right

by the roots of the tree and is level. Thanks for looking and comments

welcomed...

Dejan

Certainly a wild area.  Looks like lightning may have struck the tree a while back.

Wonderful image,superb detail and light,what an amazing area.

I like this one very much. The realism is superb and the colors are excellent.

Nice colors and nice composition.

Gianluigi

Fantastic composition, colour and feel. Kind regards from Kyn , New Zealand

Magnificent high impact image.  A beautiful environmental portrait, fabulous execution. Makes my heart sing......