This is my little clump o' trees I've shot before. Sadly, I lost my first set of shots in The Great Hard Drive Crash of 2006 earlier this year. I can't quite re-create those as they were quite dependent on time of year for light and foliage or lack thereof. But I do find them zen-like. Drove up there early Saturday morning and had to wait for the sun to come out a bit as it started out behind some low clouds.
Post processing: I don't think I cropped this at all. Did Bear's cntrl-alt-~ thing with "multiply" for the highlights, "screen" for the low end; curves; hue/sat - adjusted hue slightly for cyan and yellow to bring out the blues and greens; did a bunch of dodging and burning to bring out the higher clouds and the shadows under the trees; USM; resize.
There's a sign there, now - one of those large commercial FOR SALE signs... I wonder about the future of my little clump o' trees.
Statistics
Place: 63 out of 329 Avg (all users): 6.0340 Avg (commenters): 7.2308 Avg (participants): 5.9038 Avg (non-participants): 6.1667 Views since voting: 1414 Views during voting: 324 Votes: 206 Comments: 34 Favorites: 3 (view)
This is so pretty. I love the free atmosphere and all the blue sky, the smoothness of the grass and the shadows under the trees... it's almost like a fantasy setting. Wonderful!
I love trees. Great angle/cropping. They look scrawny on their own but strength comes by numbers. Just a wisp of clouds to break up the blue sky. Good work!
Excellent shot Deb. You're one of those people that I was talking about earlier that just have an eye for seeing an opportunity. That is what I envy most in really good photographers. There's a huge difference between being able to take a picture and see a picture. This shot is a great example that you can see a picture.
I didn't comment, but did vote. This photo was one of my favourites form the challenge. Quite exotic, yet very simple. The location is implied - the viewer puts whatever they want into it. Nice work.
Trading post...
Excellent zen! I love the colors and the composition. The softness kind of gives it a peaceful, almost surreal feel to it. The gradient in the sky is gorgeous as well. Beautiful job all around as usual. So sad to hear it might go to the bulldozers.
Pure simplicity. With the great images in Zen, I guess 63 isn't that bad of a finish. It might be a fun one to do in black and white too. There's enough tonal variance - might be worth a try. I really liked this one during the challenge.
How could this have got any better? Hard to say. The composition is pretty much impeccable. I would certainly have desaturated a fair bit to calm down the picture. Lovely stuff.
This is SO underrated!!! What a perfect, beautiful zen photo! It inspires me to believe I could maybe find some beautiful landscape photography -- even in Texas! You certainly have!!!!
Lovely, subtle, and almost pastel, a beautiful calming image well composed, and a great capture including the bank of beautiful clouds along the horizon. I very much love the sharp texture of the bark versus the wispy feel to the grass, leaves, and cirrus clouds. A really lovely image, so well done.
Very nice shot Deb and another 6+ score. Great composition and layout of the trees. The colors are nice as well. A bit sharper on the trees could have made this a bit better maybe. Great work though (and you beat me again).
These trees do have a Zen quality about them, although Zen is not the first thing I think of when I see them. For some reason I get Friendship out of this picture. That seems weird! Great job. 8
As little as I know about zen. . .this photo does "speak" it to me. It has harmony, peace, simplicity. I really love it. This one would make a great framed print for an office or home.
I like the dreamy effect here. Very serene, good balance between sky and earth. Meets the challenge well. Trees should be in sharp focus, doing so would not destroy the effect. I would also move them to the right and crop out that little scraggly one. Horizon is a bit sloped. Overall, a nice shot. 5.
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