bur oak - Iowa loess hills

Iowa had a cold spring this year. While the apple and pear trees in my CT backyard are already in full bloom, this nature area still had snow on the ground. The next morning it was cold and misty, but not foggy enough to isolate the oaks against their noisy background. This oak grows on a sharp ridge, and I photographed it low against the sky. Image was converted to black and white in NIK effects, lightening the trunk and adding grain. The cold damp morning seemed to call for a gritty kind of image.

The cool damp morning seemed to call for a gritty black and white

image. Thanks for looking.

I think adding grain was a good decision -- it provides a good background for the "spikiness" of the tree.  I usually like to see whole trees, but that's not a problem here (it's not the purpose of the photograph).  Nice work with Nik.

Thanks Stephen,

I cropped the tree because it's not a freestanding tree (together with others it lines the crest of a ridge) and due to the hilliness of the terrain and forest cover you walk mostly under them,rather than seeing them isolated from a distance. So you never really take in the entire thing. The crop reflects the closeness and fact that the oaks are towering above you.

Of course a (very practical) second reason is that even with a 12mm lens I wouldn't have been able to get back enough to take in the entire oak. :-) But while shooting that didn't appear to be a limitation. I actually made a widescreen version with the top cropped further which I use as a desktop background. After staring at it for a few days I like it almost better.

good you didn't stop down more than f/5, but i think you could have left it even a little more open.  best, j

Hi Jamie,

I know your preference for blur. Here I wanted to focus on the delicate structure of the oak branches and brambles below, while contrasting it with the foggy background. Usually the lower third of the image would show trees growing on the other side of the valley. The fog masked them all.
But depth-of-field wasn't really an issue here with a 12 mm lens. Most of the detail was in one plane (more or less). However, the lens' maximum aperture is f/4, and I like to stop it down at least a little bit. So, f/5.6 it was.

Christoph