Rooted Sycamore

Larry, the larger version is so good, so clear, such great colors and textures and comp.

I like the composition and the light. Particularly the roots are pretty interesting. A good capture to convey a place. It does look HDR-ish however. I don't use this as a negative term. I was about to mention something about the processing as I noticed your technical info. Something in the sky and the bg that looks a bit off to me.

The vibrancy of this really helps the comp, I think. Horizontal protruding stick is a bit of eye-stopper.

Larry,

You've certainly found and captured a fascinating and worthy subject. The massive old trunks and root system are quite interesting. The form at the bottom of the "v" of the trunks looks like a creature coming up from the depths... and even the roots look like little creatures.

Although I thought the same as Dietrich when it comes to the processing, I think you managed this pretty well. I like the colors throughout. I guess what gives it away is that I would expect deeper shadows in the light that is present. Although I'm no hdr processing expert, I think that's one of the characteristics, right? trying to increase dynamic range. I think you're real close with the processing.

The only suggestion I have would be to selectively burn down the bright patch in the water - looks like a mini sand bar covered in leaves... And lastly, I agree with Tony about the horizontal thing. Is that part of the tree? It looks perfectly straight like it's part of an old pipe or something? Not a huge distraction, but the eye eventually finds it.

Overall this works pretty well.

Lon

Thanks for the comments. I always learn.

The color of the sky is not far from what is was. An usual day; very windy with lots of humidity and low clouds with spaces in between. The blue is part of the HDR augment and I can reduce that.

The straight item is a captured small tree. I've attached a photo I hope will show this. You can see the upper part of the tree going down in the labyrinth of the roots. It is so straight because it was a young sapling of some type. I could have removed it but that's not Hoyle on NPN, correct. And for the discerning it becomes yet another story told by the tree and its captive.

See if the attached pic sets this 'straight'.... This is a close up of the roots from another photo and about a 50% crop.
the fisch

Looks good to me, fisch. The larger version provides some excellent detail in this unique tree and it's root system.

Larry,

Thanks for posting the closeup and explanation. It's more obvious now, but ya gotta admit it sure looks perfectly straight in full size versions. Good news though, it's not really distracting per se, but seemingly out of place maybe? no biggie, still a fascinating tree.

Lon