Ready for the Whites

I decided to enjoy another week in the White Mountains in September. This will be the fifth week I've spent at the Crooked Creek Research Station. I don't know what I'll find that I haven't already seen or imaged throughout my estimated 25 visits there, but that makes the challenge more exciting. From my last time up there, here's one I made with the 1DsIII and the new 14mm II.

Man, I love this place. I like the soft light in this image. The roots make a nice foreground. The overall composition is good, but the one suggestion I have would've been to manage a little more space between the horizon and the branches of the foreground tree. That portion of the image looks a bit crowded. Given the geometry of the tree, though, I can understand if this wasn't possible.

Thanks, Anish,. I did give that consideration, and I placed the horizon of the ridge under the lower branches in a visible place, rather than to not see it, which would have just looked like a brown filled area with no definition. There are so many lines going on, that finding a good comp among them takes time. I did try different lenses and camera to subject distances, and with this lens needed to be careful not to get the tripod legs, or my toes, in the frame.

Good composition, Jeffrey. The exposed roots provide good lead in lines.
Fortunately, the sky wasn't too hot.

Nice use of all the converging lines (roots and branches). I like the way my eye is pulled into the middle of the image. I also like this as a 4x5 with a crop off the top as well. Nice work!

I love how the branches and roots both emanate from the tree, nicely done Jeffrey, and have a blast up there!

Very nice Jeffrey. I'm definitely going to get back up there soon as well. I went up last summer after a long period away. I almost went up last weekend, but ran out of time.

After being up there 25 times there is probably a piece of you up there.

I like the up close view of the extreme wide angle. Almost feels like I'm going to poke an eye out. The dolomite adds some contrast to otherwise just brown dirt that would of just blended in with the tree.

Doesn't work for me... Green tree on the left, dunes cut, moderately interesting tree viewpoint... I'd search for a better angle/point of interest even if in the same comp idea.