Love Tree

[swmdrayfan]

While on my stroll thru the park, I came upon this tree.



And a black and white version



And a third version.....with the contrast reworked and a gaussian blur added.

[LeeIs]

I like your idea here John. The composition is good as is. The only thing that throws this off for me is the lighting. I wish the tree was better lit so that we can see more contrast to the grooves in the etchings and maybe even the bark's texture more. It's weird though for such a big tree, the bark looks really tiny. Is it a de-barked tree? or one of those that people shave off in some areas for whatever reason, I've see some around and never really understood why.

[swmdrayfan]

Liban,

I've been working with this one. I keep coming back to it to see how I can improve the look. As far as the bark goes, it's smooth all the way around. Makes for a gooe 'easel', as you can see.
John

[readingr]

I played around with this and nyou could select the tree and add contrast to enhance the bark. I think I would like to see even less DOF to blur the background.

The tree I think could be a beech which has this soft grained type of bark like this, unless its diseased.

Roger

[readingr]

John,

Did you just read my mind while I was typing? I think you need a bit more of a feather edge to the selction before bluring as it now has an edge to the blur which looks weired.

Roger

[CLKunst]

John,

I think perhaps the inclusion of the background scenery may have fooled your meter into a darker exposure of the tree's surface than you originally planned. Also, I can't see all of the carving, the curve of the trunk is obstructing the right side of it. It appears that this was intentional, can you tell me why you felt it was important to frame it as you did? If this had been me I would have left out the water and the background and just stuck to the carving and the texture of the trunk. Just my opinion of course.

P.S. I was going to guess Birch tree but Roger is probably right this is probably a Beech.

Regards,

[swmdrayfan]

C.L. and Roger...........

As far as the tree itself goes, it's a healthy (although somewhat disfigured) tree. The reason I took that picture from that perspective was more safety reasons than anything. There was a small incline, and it was snow covered, so to be prudent and save myself (not to mention the camera) from a fall I shot from that point. I'll go back in the spring or summer and try again.

Since it was about 12:30 this morning when I decided to go to the gaussian blur etc, I must fess up and tell you I didn't take the time that I should have to get this as good as I could. It was a spur of the moment thing. I should have waited til later on this morning to do it. I learned a lesson......always wait til you are clear of mind and faculties before you play with your images.;)