Lime Kiln Trail

[Round Tuit]

I took this picture shortly after sunrise one morning last week. I must admit that I find it extremely difficult to take a good picture of a forest. Most of the time, I peer through the viewfinder and don't even bother pressing the shutter release because what appears in the viewfinder is a jumble of trees and branches. No subject, no background,no foreground!

With this one however, I feel that I have captured some of the serenity of the place in the calm morning air as the forest was coming to life. The warm morning light seems to unify the usual jumble into a coherent whole. I haven't finished processing it yet I will probably slightly burn down the white log on the ground and clone out the blue trail marker.

Your comments and suggestion will be greatly appreciated.

[Wavelength]

I really like this; a vertical version of the walk way also will work well, i feel

[Manfred M]

I agree André - forest scenes like this one are very hard to photograph and I think I've only ever managed one or two that I was reasonably pleased with. Like this one, it featured a forest that featured trees with very few leaves on them. I always thought that in theory, this subject should work well as "repeating patterns" are a strong compositional technique, but unfortunately, the trees never quite line up in an interesting way. This shot is definitely one of the better ones that I've seen.

The usual problem is either the lack of a "centre of interest" and that broken off tree in the middle group partially fulfills that role. You also have a path that creates leading lines, but they don't lead your eyes to anything interesting. One also fights with the influence of the sky. In this image, it is definitely quite bright and stands out and is contrasted by the trees in the background, drawing far too much attention.

I wonder if cropping a bit off the bottom might help? That strong shadow in the foreground draws more attention from the tree stump than it should.

[Geoff F]

I was wondering about cropping a little from the sides to concentrate more on that path. But possibly also try Manfred's crop of the foreground shadow as well?

[Round Tuit]

Thank you Nandakumar, Geoff and Manfred
I see several crops that would make good pictures. The vertical one that Nandakumar suggest would be quite effective as would the one suggested by Geoff. However, both would make the path the main subject whereas my objective was to photograph the forest itself. I do agree though that the dark shadow at the bottom must go.
I originally included the broken stump to create an entry point in the picture that would attract the eyes. I now believe that was a mistake. Even though I burned it down quite a bit, it is too prominent and becomes a distraction rather than support my main subject which is the forest itself. The path that leads to nowhere is more effective at achieving that goal.
Having a strong "centre of interest" or an obvious prominent subject is certainly important most of the time. However, there are occasions where an harmonious grouping of elements held together by what Bruce Barnbaum calls a "unifying thought" can be more effective. It is though much harder to pull off.
The last time that I succeeded, at least in my opinion, was about three years ago with this autumn scene. In that one, the glue that held it together was the limited palette.

Autumn

Again, thank you for your comments. They made me think and as my sister would say: I will go to bed a little smarter tonight.

André

[Manfred M]

I agree that a pure forest scene can be very effective but as Barnbaum recounts, the "unifying thought" can work very well. That being said I have seen very, very few images where the photographer has managed to pull that off.

Where I have seen this work, in a forest scene was a shot where we saw only (birch) trees; no sky, no paths, no anchor points and no distractions.

[Round Tuit]

I agree that a pure forest scene can be very effective but as Barnbaum recounts, the "unifying thought" can work very well. That being said I have seen very, very few images where the photographer has managed to pull that off.

Where I have seen this work, in a forest scene was a shot where we saw only (birch) trees; no sky, no paths, no anchor points and no distractions.

It is rare but for me a worthy goal.