What Once Was

[Jude Haase]

Took this one Friday at one of my favorite shooting spots in South Louisiana. I'm constantly looking for old cypress stumps to add into my compositions and Friday while shooting the sunrise right after the sun broke the horizon I turned around and I almost didn't have to move for this shot. Boy, it's funny how things work sometime. This is surely my favorite landscape of the year so far for me. Hope you guys like it! :)
30D and 17-40L @ 24mm
ISO 100
F16
1.6th
tripod<remote timer>mirror lockup
CP-filter

[Paul Marcellini]

Man, I would love to shoot in that area. Beautiful scene, with great soft light. Only nit, and Im not sure it would make it better, is from a higher perspective, to give some separation of the foreground plants and background. May not have been possible, if you were in the water, also. Really nice one.

[Jude Haase]

Paul,

Yes, I was standing in about 3 foot of water for this one. And I did have my tripod extended as high as I can get it. ;) That's the only bad thing about shooting in swamp anywhere.......swamp is usually below sea level a couple of feet or so. :)

Jude

[Paul Marcellini]

Oh I know that, my problem is shooting over sawgrass. What to do when the foreground is chest height. I've contemplated a stepladder and some tripod extensions. =)

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Jude,
I like the placement of the dead cypress and the tight framing of the other cypress in the BG...........I'm debating the sky patches in the water............maybe just selectively toning them dowm a bit to minimize their impact.........but this has a very nice cypress swamp mood and feel to it.

[Noel Carboni]

So many things come together to make this a wonderful shot... A misty smoothness, the magic of the very early sunlight, the fact that you're not making waves (how the heck did you accomplish that?).

As with many very nice shots, as a photographer I'm inspired to think of what other shots would have been good in the area, and I find my mind craving to see more height in the trees at the top of this image. Did you shoot any taller images?

-Noel

[Robert Amoruso]

Wonderful light and detail in this image Jude. I can see why it is a favorite of yours. Roman has a good suggestion on the sky reflection and Noel on making other images here that morning.

[Jude Haase]

Hey guys.....thanks for the comments!!

Roman, The reflection you see of the sky in the water has already been toned down a good bit. I'll see if I can play with it somemore. :)
Noel, I did take a bunch of other shots here that morning and a couple of other mornings. In this certain spot, anything much higher than what you see here starts to get alot of sky in the image. I'll post somemore in the next couple of weeks.

Again Thanks guys!!
Jude