A Walk In The Woods

[Julie Kenward]

Even though autumn has barely broken the surface around my part of town there are pockets of color that are beginning to show up here and there. I was out in the woods this morning and found this branch with an interesting shadow to it - but it was the background that made the image.

Canon 40D, 70-200mm f/4L
f/4 @ 1/640th, ISO 200
Center-weighted metering, Manual mode
Handheld, Early morning light

[Anita Rakestraw]

What luscious colors in that background, Julie, and the light is absolutely wonderful!! Love the shadow too! You're enjoying your walks in the woods, aren't you!? I'm just not sure about the dark lines in the bg, to me they're kind of distracting. I tried a serious crop.....

[Chris Starbuck]

Jules,
I like the original; great colors, lots of graphic interest, but Anita's crop really focuses my attention on the twig & shadow, while keeping the BG color. A real nit: the lightest part of the twig seems a little soft -- perhaps a bit more selective sharpening?
Chris

[Gordon Craig]

I just want to say that I like both versions of the picture. They both give me great ideas for the coming fall season. The leaves don't have to be the center of attraction. Thank you for posting this:)

[Gus Cobos]

Lady Julie,
I like your original post. excellent work, I like the mood and soft feel convayed...:cool:

[Julie Kenward]

Anita, I like your crop as well but I really felt the OOF branches added a lot of abstract interest to the image so I left them in. I can sure see that it could go either way, though.

Gordon, that was exactly my point! Autumn doesn't have to be all about highly saturated images of tree after tree or macro images of leaves lying on the ground. You can convey the feeling of autumn in so many other ways and although I am a fan of a well done leaf image I like to look beyond that and find the unusual as well.

[Bruce Murden]

I too really like the original, with the feeling of more branches in the BG echoing the in focus branches in FG. The additional area also gives the colors some more punch and importance. Anita's crop serves for a study on the little branch budding from the trunk. The whole frame is a work of shapes and colors, part literal, part abstract. You could also use only the left side of the image, excluding the in focus trunk, and have a more abstract feeling of fall.

It also looks like pausing a few minutes may have isolated the little branch shadow on the sunlit portion of the trunk, without it merging with the trunk's shadowed side.

Isn't is nice how we can all see lots of different images from one position? Gets the creative gears crankin'.