Within the groves

Here's a collection of shots I made this last fall inside different groves of aspen. I shot in fog, bright light, and in pouring rain. What fascinating subjects they make in all kinds of light and conditions. And, this fall was ripe for every kind of light you would want, and every kind of weather to suit you. A memorable one for me just for the opportunities that were available.

The first one is one I made in the pouring rain near Silverjack Reservoir.

Thanks for looking

#2 A second one made in the rain.

# Another made in the rain. I liked the greens showing through in this one.

#4 One with the fog moving in.

#5 I had just been kneeling down shooting ferns to the right of this group, and when I stood up and looked this way it immediately struck me that this resembled the album covers of rock groups I used to own in the 60's.

#6 Here's a horizontal of the same shot.

#7 This one I had to call "3 men and a Baby". Like the 80's movie.

#8 Last one. The chaos and the white and black coloring reminded me of the clothes convicts wore in old prison movies. I think, "Jailbreak" is a good title for this.

I like 4,8 & 1. Im partial to the moody stuff. You had a productive Fall, Morris!

Morris, they're all gorgeous. I envy you having had the opportunity to focus so much time and attention of a single subject in so many settings. I especially liked the first two images because the aspen trunks almost seem solarized.

Morris, within a sea of well deserved positive recognition, I’ve gotta hit you up on images 1-3…The following critique is to help you narrow down what’s causing the malfunction. If I had to guess, it kinda looks like Magic Wand-ish, or quite possibly a luminosity mask gone bad, where the marching ants did not feather well with whatever desired color/contrast applied. Specifically, the left side of virtually every tree appears washed out and the lack of transitional gradient seems sudden, sharp, and lacks the above mentioned feathering. I’m a little surprised Stan didn’t mention this to you so I’m also interested if this phenomenon is only showing on my recently calibrated monitor. Lastly, there seems to be a lack of DOF or sharpening in the distant trees too. Maybe on purpose, I don’t know.

Have you started focus stacking yet? I would love to see a focus stack for 5 and 6 but if your artistic wish for the backgrounds to be blurred then never mind.

Enough of that! I love #8! I’m surprised we haven’t seen this one yet. Love the leaning trees, and love the two trees that lean opposite. Killer shot!

Btw, I’ll be visiting Dream Lake in the next few weeks for some ice shooting, you interested?

Hey, if I'm off on that date, I definitely would like to try some of those, Kane! Stensland posted one on his Facebook page today that is especially nice.

For the processing, those had barely any at all. Just levels, curves, saturation, and sharpening. They are all 3 single images with no masks. The effect you see is soaked trunks on the dark side and dry on the other. You can even see the streaks of water running down some of the lighter sides of the trees. The light was during the rain, and the light was creating this effect. The whole image was processed globally and no tree individually. I believe the contrast is accurate to the scene if the small tree in #1 is checked. Not much contrast in the heavy clouds and rain at that time. I do remember not adding much in curves for contrast because I was trying to keep this different almost ghostly feel. I also used f/8 to try to use the shallower dof to keep focus on the small trees, and not the forest beyond. I really like the effect in 1-3, but I realize they are not going to be everyone's cup of tea. Just trying to achieve something different.

And, 5 and 6 could probably have used more dof to more accurately recreate those album covers.

Shoot me an e-mail when you decide to try Dream Lake! And, thanks for the critique.

Here's a jpeg of the straight raw file. The only thing I did in Camera Raw before opening it in CS6 was to increase contrast 4 points. You can even see some light streaks I had to clone out in this. Hope this helps explain what I was working with.

Hmm that interesting Morris. My moniter shows zero detail in most of the highlighted left side of the trees. Its got to be a moniter thing.

Well, mine's a dinosaur of a CRT so my guess is yours is correct.

This is a very inspiring set of images, Morris. I love closeup views of aspens and you did a wonderful job in seeing the best compositions. The only one that does not appeal to me is #6, but that's an alternate comp. of #5 anyway. Like Stan, I feel that #'s 1, 4 & 8 are the best, IMO. Bravo, sir!

Morris, I'm seeing the same thing Kane is mentioning. Maybe it is indeed a trick of the odd conditions, but it still looks funny and digital to me. I wouldn't recommend you lose much sleep over though, since I think the later images in this set are stronger in any case. I like the misty mood in #4, but Jailbreak is just awesome, up there with the best aspen images anywhere. I'm really enjoying the criss-cross chaos, and the light is perfect!

I agree with Kane and Jackson. Something just isn't right with the first three. It almost appears that there was some in-camera highlight recovery applied to the trunks causing, what looks like, posterization. Maybe adding some fill light in Camera Raw, or adjustments in Curves in PS to bring up the midtones could help these a bit. The fourth and final images are my favorites from this set as well and it appears they wouldn't need as intense postprocessing.

I find the abstract look of number 8 the best.