Lines Of Nature

I'll be honest here, John - the composition isn't working real well for me. My eye is not finding a focal point or pattern to lock onto, and the birch on the right cutting across the top and right is particularly distracting. The BW conversion is just so-so. You have a good range of contrast from blacks to whites, but the dark oak(?) is too dark and distracting, and the lack of contrast between the birch and the sky isn't working. I think you could do some dodging of the highlights in the leaves to improve the contrast there. You can try using different colored PS filters to change the contrast, but some images are more amenable to BW conversion than others.

I would agree with much of what Doug said, but there's still something about this that I like. I would love to be walking though those woods right now!

The leaning white-barked trees make for a nice graphic, but they do sort of get lost in the white sky. If the white trunks are the focal point, isolating them against a dark background would strengthen their impact in the image.

I think this is great, esp. for a first try at b&w. I like how that one dark tree in the FG contrasts with all the white birch trees. Good work!

John,

I expect it's because this is black and white, but maybe something else as well that makes me think this was taken a long time ago.... even though there's nothing in here to give away it's age. I'm thinking even a sepia treatment would enhance that look even more.

Compositionally, I like the open area in the middle allowing the eye to wander in to the scene. The contrast between the white birch and darkness of the oak and background trees (poplar?) works pretty well. I do think the details in the oak could be brought out a little more as the tree is pretty dark. Surprisingly, the bright sky doesn't bother me too much here and in fact adds to that old time look I was referring to.

Lon

Thank's for all your honest comments. I will keep them in mind and hopfully put them to use next time. I did crop out the sky but decided to post with the sky instead.
Lon- Actually this photo was taken 11-8-2009, so I don't know if thats good or bad that it looks so old Also thanks for taking the time to comment.