This Fallen Live Oak is a wonderful example of unique compositions that nature gives us.
The first image is my favorite but I enjoyed several other compositions with this wonderful old tree. The camera helps me interact with the environment I am in and capturing images is often the reason I am in the wonderful locations I visit. Capturing images is a great way to spend time enjoying the environment.
I used Photoshop CS6 and Color Efex Pro 4 in Nik software to process these three images.
The morning after the Charleston workshop ended I was out shooting with my friend Darren Plant scouting out new images for next years group and spending time on compositions that I did not have time to work on while teaching.. The day after a workshop I am always thinking of what locations need to be revisited and how can I capture the image differently. We left the hotel at 6:00 am so we could be on location as soon as there was enough light to start shooting. After recomposing a few images I wandered into areas I thought might be promising but passed by because of time limitations with the group. On a sunny day there is only a short period of time in the morning before you have too much contrast with the light to capture great images. I love a overcast morning with a little misty rain which allows me more time to capture images.
When I captured images on 4″x5″ film I often had to think of how much it was going to cost me at the end of the shoot so I spent most of my time studying composition and waiting for the light. Now that pixels are free I work a location more and often capture small and different compositions that I would not have captured on film.
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