ravens roost overlook on the blue ridge parkway. i got some great pics out there a few days before this challenge was announced, and i like some elements of those ones better than this submission (they're on flickr), but hopefully this will do ok.
on my first attempt at processing, i did an hdr-tonemapped b+w conversion, but there were distracting blown out highlights in the sky. i tossed that aside and did a regular b+w conversion in ps-cs3, bumped the contrast, scaled, usm, border, saved for web. funny how the regular processing saved more highlights than the tonemapping. this version has a little less texture on the rocks, but overall i like it better...
hopefully nobody will comment that the mountains in the background also have trees on them. yes, there are trees there. i admit it. there is no way around it. however, i still think this picture conveys the appropriate feelings to represent a single tree as the main subject.
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My favorite so far, likely going to be in my top 5. I like the contrast of the rocks that the tree is on with the forest below. Beautiful exposure, really exudes a feeling of a sentinel looking over the valley below.
WOW - very Ansel Adams. I like the composition. If it were mine, I might've done a bit of burn on the rocks, to distinguish some of the tonal variances of them. :~)
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