After Life

This is a beauty, Gary!!!  Excellent comp, great tree and sky. I might lose the bit of rock coming into the frame mid grasses on the left. Real sweet image.

Wonderful work on this, Gary! Great composition and I love your b&w processing. This looks so good as is there is nothing I would change. Really nice work! 

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

Gary,
Wow, this is superb. Some excellent B&W images being posted, and this is definitely one of them. Well constructed comp. and some intriguing drama in those clouds. Processing looks beautiful. How are you processing?

This is really cool, Gary!  Great b&w processing to create this dramatic image. 

This is really sweet, Gary! The composition is nicely balanced. The tones look great to my eye. I agree with Harley about that bit of rock. This is really well done.

--P

Gary:

The sky does make the picture, almost looks like the smoke from the tree burning.  I find cloudless skies to be (often) boring. 

Maybe the sameness of the grass doesn't  add much interest to the foreground, not much you can do about that!  Good feeling of a dynamic scene!

Cheers:   Tom

This is excellent, Gary. Extraordinary. This is you at your best - a clear vision boldly displayed. B&W is the right medium for this because it heightens the emotions invoked by the subject. The sky in incredible and those dead branches against it is just a highly charged composition. I can't think of any way to improve this. Great job sir. Wish it were mine. The large version is a must.

Wonderful tones, textures and mood. Perfect in B and W with all those stormy clouds, plus the dead tree. Great work.

This is absolutely stunning Gary!  Wonderful balance of B&W tones.

You just keep putting out these stunning B&W scenes for us to enjoy, Gary. The drama in the sky is superb as are the details throughout this lovely image.

Ed

Has to be seen large to be truly appreciated Gary, and when it is seen large it is an extremely powerful image, the kind that evokes real emotion.  One of the strongest images I've seen in a good while.

 I am starting to fall in love with the super El Nino.

I wish we could down here in So Cal, Gary. I will not jinx things yet, but it really has not lived up to expectations. Everything is at least thankfully hitting up north in the sierras and moving on to Utah, Nevada, Colorado areas. If we get a good dose down here we can usually count on wild poppy's everywhere. Have not had that in several years now......

This is a special B&W scene for me. Very nice indeed with no nits or ideas from me personally. Looks truly wonderful....

I like the dramatic light, Gary, and the nice forms and shapes in the tree, rocks, grasses, and clouds. 

Hi Gary, a wonderful shot - the pp is excellent and the dramatic b/w finish really works with the composition and motif.
Cheers, Mark

Another killer B+W, with a dito sky. I won't give you any help because this is excellent and I can't think of any improvement!

Gary,

This is fantastic!  Dare I say it, but Tom see's it too, "The Burning Bush...."  That was my first impression.  The sky really completes the image, but there is so much more to this - the grasses, rock, the little yucca, and even the fallen branch that occupies space in the LR.

This would just have to make a bold and beautiful large print!

Lon

Hi  Gary      You captured   wonderful  drama and  movement  with this  B&W  version.  this  composition  has a presence  that  few images can give..  excellent  work

Albert Darmo
Canada

I am quite captivated by the image. It is simple one of the best B&W images I seen in some time. Ansel would have been proud!

Hi Gary,

This is a quite the dramatic black and white image with those clouds up top looking all kinds of moody. The stark foreground is really a beautiful compliant and adds to the stark nature of this capture. Black and white is a beautiful choice for a scene like this one because of the powerful graphic nature of this area.

Beautiful work

 

That's quite the silhouette, Gary.  It's set off perfectly by the stormy sky and balanced nicely by the yucca.  The fallen branch on the right adds very nicely.  As a very minor nit, I think dodging the shadowed area on the rocks to the right a bit would lessen their impact.

I missed this one of your Gary, sometime I don't get around to checking into the site.The way you handle the tones is very pleasing to me and makes use of the entire gray scale it seems.  Not too warm , not too cool - just right.  The tree placement in the image looks like it was meant to be.  The only thing I can think of that might effect the image would maybe to have been shooting from a lightly lower vantage point, if possible.  Might have created a little more separation of the lower limbs from the rock walls.  Too much lower, the agave(?) might start mixing with the tree branches, so this might have been the best compromise.  A beauty!