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Dave Mills
06-10-2009, 08:42 PM
Used a small gnarled tree to frame the mitten at Monument Valley...
D200, 24-120 lense, F22 1/250 polariser 0 comp tripod mtd iso 200

Randy Stout
06-10-2009, 08:57 PM
Dave:

B&W certainly the right choice here.
I love the texture in the tree.
Perhaps just a slightly lower shooting angle to clear the top of the monument from the tree just a bit more.

I am intrigued about the possibilities of different focal lengths here, to change the relative size of the tree and monument. Did you try that?

I might consider burning in the sand in the foreground a bit.
The image might have been a bit less cluttered without the bushes on the left.

I really like this one a lot, it just inspires one to visualize the scene, and I think lends itself to some tweaking, to try out different ideas.

Neat!

Thanks for sharing.

Randy

Dave Mills
06-10-2009, 09:11 PM
Hi Randy, yes, I shot this a number of ways. I was on my knees when I shot this since it's a very small tree. You couldn't tell it's size just by looking at it. I have done a closer view where I cut off part of the right side of the tree and some of the branches on the upper left. This makes the mitten more dominant. By backing off there is a tendancy to diminish the strength of the mitten greatly.

Randy Stout
06-10-2009, 09:18 PM
Thanks Dave.

Did you do anything special for your B&W conversion?

Randy

Julie Kenward
06-10-2009, 10:25 PM
Nice conversion and I love the choice of B&W here. I would also like to see a bit more room around the mitten area - I think that would really add a more profound presence to the monument.

As for the little notch on the tree that shows to the right of the mitten - I myself might be inclined to clone that out - my eye keeps getting drawn to it instead of the mitten.

Really nice image overall. There's enough textures here to keep me looking around for minutes on end...

Dave Mills
06-11-2009, 12:02 AM
Randy, I put it in silver fx and converted. I then added contrast to my taste. After that I burned the clouds to bring them out more.
Julie, I played with this composition on 2 separate occasions. I found that as I added room around the mitten it became smaller in the image instead of being more dominant. This was about the best balance I could come up with. At a future date I'll post another comp as I mentioned previously with the mitten being more dominant but the tree is cut on the right and the upper left branches are also. That comp works also with the exception being if one doesn't like those areas cut. Taking the nub off the tree is an easy fix.

chris Bycroft
06-11-2009, 05:05 AM
Great image Dave. I like the balence of the pattered sky, monument and the patterned soil. I agree with some of the others that there is plenty of items in the image to keep the viewer interested. The leaves at the end of branches on the tree appear a bit blury on my screen. Was there a light breeze?

Cheers Chris.

Dave Mills
06-11-2009, 09:23 AM
Hi Chris...There might have been..I didn't notice.

Roman Kurywczak
06-12-2009, 09:10 AM
Hey Dave,
Know the area well.....nice thought on the B&W conversion too. You may have been able to get slightly closer.....that would have made the mitten a bit more prominant.....but as you are well aware.....then your own shadow comes into play here......so I think I'd leave it as presented. I may selectively dodge that bush in a few areas.....just to make it stand out a bit more from the BG......and that will just add a final bit of punch. Nicely composed overalll!

Ed Cordes
06-13-2009, 06:46 PM
Nice perspective and nice and sharp as well. Do you have a color version? I'll bet it is great as well.

Robert Amoruso
06-14-2009, 11:52 AM
Good out of the box thinking Dave. I like it a lot. B&W and excellent choice here as the texture in the tree is really on display in B&W. No color to get in the way.

Jackie Schuknecht
06-16-2009, 10:25 AM
This is neat Dave. I like your framing and the light looks harsh so the B and W brought out the starkness of everything even more. Looks like a harsh place.