Images of Utah, Bristlecone Pine

Sometime ago I posted this photograph but had always felt that it

needed some additional work. The original scan exhibited noise/grain

artifacts in the sky that I felt would be a good test of the Neat

Image software. I prefer to view this particular photograph as large

as possible, therefore I recommend that it be viewed LARGE, otherwise

you will be viewing a PhotoNet compressed image. I recommend a minimum

monitor setting of 1280x1024 and full screen (F11 in Netscape). A

monitor gamma of 2.1 would be best. I would be interested in knowing

if you find this an interesting photograph. I myself thought the tree

looked rather frightening! Thank you for your visit to my folder.

Walter, I like very much the details of the tree and mountain, and the far away what looks a city. The only thing I would have liked is one step of yours to the left hand side..... ( so the tree will not be in the very center). Pnina

Good definition,colour, and sky saturation.

While I admire much of your work, the over-polarized sky is really garish in this one.

Pinina, thanks for the comment. When I first posted this I had received a similar comment about centering the tree. For me, however, the tree must remain in the center, otherwise my attention would drift into the canyon beyond. And my intention was to keep it focused on the tree.

 

Jesus, thank you for the visit and comment.

 

Robert, thank you for your visit, comment, and attachment. I would certainly agree that this resembles a polarized Velvia sky; those are the skies I remember at Bryce. Your attachment presents a wonderful view. My personal interpretation is that it looks desaturated, almost like a digital capture. But still a good photograph! In fact, it gave me an idea to try doing a B&W conversion in Photoshop. And that is what I did. Regards.

I much prefer your black and white version. Also, I think the the centered composition is fine, given the subject and how you've framed it.

Wow! Quite a breaktaking scene! I'm not sure which version I prefer. I think I like both!

I like the color one more. The sky looks okay to me.

Beautiful. Very well done.

Brilliant colors! Excellent clarity. Interesting composition.

My initial thought was also the tree is just too centered here. After reading your explanation, I can understand now why. The tree IS the focus of the image. However, in my opinion, this would be perhaps just as aesthetically pleasing a capture if the tree was just part of the scene and moved over a bit either way. Nice detail as well and an excellent capture of those colors Walt! Like your new King Crony-self portrait as well. Aloha.

Walter, nice one! the sky looks good to me..handheld?? you must have forearms like Popeye! :-)

'cause I eats me spinach...Well, at faster shutter speeds (1/60th and up) it really is not too bad. Especially with this lens; but with a telephoto it would be another story. Thank you Derek for the visit! And Aloha Vincent! Regards.

Very eye-catching photo, Walter.

This is beautiful, Walter, I remembered I saw something similar too, a great view. http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=1598601

Thanks Steve, Mari...I remember your photograph of Bryce Canyon (just last year!). It really is a great location. Regards.

I have several images of this tree myself and none are as nice as this. I ended up opting for a different take in another location. Check my portfolio if interested for the one image I've uploaded from this location. I have another that I'm more fond of that I have to add later. Back to your image though I really like the color and lighting. The composition is a little too centered for my taste, but I like the inclusion of the roots on the left. I still might have been tempted to pan to the right just a tad.

Thanks for the comment Jim! Compositionally, this was a hard call for me. To make it a better landscape, you are right that the tree should be displaced from the center. But when I saw this organisim with its roots splayed out across the ground, and its twisted limbs pointing in multiple directions, I was reminded of a certain old 1950's "B" grade scfi movie that I once saw. There was this alien creature from Venus that sort of looked like this tree (I think they called him Borvak). So, Borvak is centered in the frame ;0) Regards.

Walter I think you have a better composition here by getting closer and including the roots as well. Unfortunately, our group of geologists was always on the run so that left me with an average window of a couple of minutes tops to find, compose and fulfill a shot! I'd love to go back some time and photograph at my own pace.

A great place and a nice shot. http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=4158039

Walter, I read your comment on Sean Depuydt's centered lamppost and followed your link. Surely you can understand that the general comment people are offering is that the "rule" allows your composition to become more of a landscape with the tree a strong element. When you center it this way, it "blocks" the viewer I guess, and when people visit a place like this, they naturally move to either side so that they can look into the distance. In Sean's lamppost case, he had little detail in the distance so it's easier for him to center. In this case, you are rather more aggressive and confrontational :) What I mean to say is that your work is cut out for you because it's such a beautiful vista here and there is so much color. Even in b/w mode, the poor tree must compete quite a lot. To be honest, I enjoy the striking form of the tree remnant, but that is my personal taste while many others, obviously, do not share your aesthetic mode in this particular case. Speaking of rules, I never knew the about cropping the foreground until I joined PN! I get lots of flak about that (too much sky or FG) so I always enjoy seeing the work of other rule-breakers heheh. I love this image, btw. At 10,000 feet, the sky is very blue. Lowlanders don't always know this.

Many thanks for your visit and comment. That is an interesting point about strongly saturated skies and one's aclimated altitude. Being a "lowlander" myself I find these Utah skies captivating, simply because that what I am use to is usually so blah! Regards.