"The Naked Land"

The land without skin; just rock, sticks and ice. Everything is laid bare and exposed. This one is from last December, only recently converted to a more suitable black and white treatment. The first good snowfall of the new winter of 2008 had me chasing the powder with my camera. I had hoped for the more typical winter scene, but I chose the Lake Isabella region for first light, which presented a different look than what I was after. It pays to be flexible with intention I think. While intention may provide clarity of purpose, it can also be a singularly narrow path to follow. Please click for a Larger version and I would love to hear your impressions!

Yes, I chose landscape as opposed to nude as the category. Thanks for your

feedback!

I really like this photo.

 

Hi Bob! Thanks for your approval. For me, the two bare trees is the icing on an otherworldly scene. Thanks so much!

Mark... It looks like my brain on mountain landscapes :-). Do I remember a color version of this sometime back? Regardless, marvelous detail and a real study in contrasts... Mike

 

 

Wonderful shot Mark, the foreground takes up a lot of the shot, but the many different cracks add some nice pattern and it works very well i think. I like the pretty subdued B&W tones as well.

 

Dave.

Thanks Mike and Dave. Yes, Mike, this is from a colored brain, but it's all gray matter anyway! Dave, the less obvious part of the foreground is the smaller rock patterns that are traveling across this hill. Some look imbedded, but some look like they are placed there by pranksters. I don't have a logical explanation for that but found it quite interesting none the less!

Mark, Fantastic image! The texture brings a mysterious feel to the scene. The way the hovering cloud graces a select part of the mountain is just perfect. Fantastic work indeed. Happy New Year!

 

SS

Thanks Steve, always good to hear from you!

Fabulous image and I agree the trees are the icing on the cake. Because of my arts background though I always like an odd number. But we take what we can get I have broken that rule myself. Great shot in many respects regardless, rek.

I love these fissured rocks....they really do look like a brain! I'm wondering though.....in your mind what is the focus of this image? Personally, even though the rocks are interesting, I like the 3 layers at the back of the image, especially the cloud layer. What would you think of the idea of cropping this a little down front? With your version I see that front portion and the back rather equally. When I crop the front, my eye goes straight back to the tree line and the aforementioned layers. I'd be curious to know your thoughts on this from a composition standpoint. Thanks! Here's what I had in mind.

 

Thanks Christal, that certainly works. I like the balance that comes with the crop, I actually considered more of a pano when preparing this. Someone else already mentioned the amount of foreground in a critical manner, so I can see that less may mean more! Thanks!!