Magic Forest

[Clactonian]

[Donald]

Mike

That is superb. A wonderful vision of form and light.

My only question would be to wonder if the light on the upper part of the nearest tree is a tad too dominant and might benefit from being cranked back a little?

One of these at which you could look for hours and still see new things.

[Clactonian]

Thanks Donald ... any better?

[Donald]

Thanks Donald ... any better?

I think so ... but that's just my view.

Any way you look at it, it is magnificent. Right up there with your best, in my opinion.

ps - Been looking at your image of Tyne Cot again. Am just back a couple of weeks ago. A sobering experience.

[Clactonian]

Been looking at your image of Tyne Cot again. Am just back a couple of weeks ago. A sobering experience.

I hesitate to ask if you had a good time, but I'm sure, like me, you find the memorials a must see. Sobering indeed, but we seem not to have learned anything.

[Donald]

As I wrote before, we spent a few days in the Somme, before going down to just beside Villie-Morgon in Beaujolais for two weeks. Then back up to Flanders for our last 4 days.

Beaujolais was even more beautiful than I knew it would be.

In terms of the beginning and end, the experience of arriving in the Somme for the first time really makes a huge impact. We drove straight from Zeebrugge to Thiepval. And from the monument we walked out, through the fields, onto the Leipzig Redoubt. And you know what the most staggering and breath-stopping experience of it all was? The sudden awareness that the only noise was that of skylarks singing. We were the only people there and the emotion was quite over-powering.

The other thing that will hold firm in my mind is that at 10pm one evening, on the way home to our B & B from dinner in Albert, we went to the sunken lane at Beaumont Hamel. There was not another soul about and it was just starting to get dark. Standing in front of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders memorial with the sunken lane just to our left, the trees surrounding the Hawthorn Crater up on our right and the spire of the church in Beaumont Hamel a couple of hundred yards in front of us sticking up above the trees. I don't think I shall ever stand in another place that had such a moving and deep impact upon my senses.

ps - I realise that for those who have never been there it is difficult to convey the real sense of what it feels like. But to look out at 200/300 yards of land that we can now walk over in a few minutes and realise that it took 5 months and c300,000 casualities to cover that same ground in 1916, makes you think very, very deeply.

[Clactonian]

Your description brings it all back Donald.
Off to France again shortly for a week or so. Overnight at the Gentilhommière in Artres near Valencienne, down to the Vosges and Plombières-les-Bains, across to Meursault for a few nights to collect my Burgundy, then up to Beaugency on the Loire, before heading back to Chateu des Tourelles outside Boulogne. Must remember to take a camera!!

[Donald]

Now you're just making me jealous!

Have fun.

[Katy Noelle]

Now you're just making me jealous!

Have fun.

Yes, he is! and, worser still... I think that he's doing it on purpose! (One-eyed suspicioso smiley) You'd better remember your camera! Big smiley!

[ilovelucydog]

Mike, that is an amazing image. WOW. Nufff said.

[Seriche]

That's a gorgeous image! Luscious colours and the magical light behind the trees. Makes me wonder if the next living thing to enter that space will be real or imaginary

Seri

[Clactonian]

Thank you kind people. Sadly it's all in the post processing. Whilst I knew what I wanted at the time of shooting it was only achievable thanks to Photoshop.

[Clactonian]

I think that he's doing it on purpose!

Would I mess with a moderator? Perish the thought!!

[Donald]

Thank you kind people. Sadly it's all in the post processing. Whilst I knew what I wanted at the time of shooting it was only achievable thanks to Photoshop.

Yep, but you had the vision - the idea formed in your head and you executed it. That's the artistry.

[JohnC]

It's all in the title- 'it's magical' and I second Donald's last comment here-doing what you've done in PS is an art in itself requiring great imagination.

[Katy Noelle]

Thank you kind people. Sadly it's all in the post processing. Whilst I knew what I wanted at the time of shooting it was only achievable thanks to Photoshop.

Oh, and, btw, I love the image (couldn't you hear me think it?)

This is my major revelation, in the last month or two, that "it's" "all" in the pp. I had no realization when I started this photography thing, then, I didn't want it to be like that but, there it is - pp is so important! I mean, yes, alright, we have to know how to take a good photo and get the goods in the first place (yada, yada...) but, still,....

and, we have to mess with the moderators - it keeps them humble!

[Donald]

and, we have to mess with the moderators - it keeps them humble!

Mod 3 to Mod 1 - "Put a surveillance on this one. Seems to be getting rebellious"

[Seriche]

Thank you kind people. Sadly it's all in the post processing. Whilst I knew what I wanted at the time of shooting it was only achievable thanks to Photoshop.

Nothing sad about it at all. I agree with everyone else here. It's an image that didn't exist in real life, and your vision allowed it to come into being for us all to enjoy I'm so looking forward to seeing more of what's in your mind's eye.

Seri

[SpiderBob]

My gosh, all I can say is stunning and truly magical.

[Katy Noelle]

Mod 3 to Mod 1 - "Put a surveillance on this one. Seems to be getting rebellious"

HEH, heh, heh, heh, heeeeeh!!!