The Glow

Gallery: LandscapePosted November 27, 2009417 views18 comments

Near Ouray, Colorado

These trees were in a creek drainage, the early morning sun had just cleared the top of the slope and backlit the trees but left the slope behind in shadow. The aspen trees with the orange leaves looked like they were on fire. This was a day after a huge wind came through and a large number of trees were blown over. You can see several trees in the images that have fallen. We had to use my winch and pull 3 75 foot high trees off a couple different forest roads and actually witnessed a 75 foot+ pine tree get blown over in a forest.

Please see the larger version for more detail.
I'm working towards printing this and any critiques would be most appreciated. Thank you.

Canon 5D II, 24-105L @ 105mm

ISO 200, f8, 1/100sec, -.67 exposure compensation

Comments

18 comments

Comment posted by Aaron Feinberg on November 27, 2009 at 11:41 PM

Pretty sweet capture and quick catch as the light came over the crest. Would say the right side is a bit weaker, around the gap in the trees as I feel cropping it might make it a bit tighter and cohesive comp. Great colors and light overall.

aF

Registered on October 26, 2009, 399 Posts, 2789 Comments

Comment posted by Christopher Maun on November 28, 2009 at 12:05 AM

A very beautiful capture, but I have to agree with Aaron. I love the strong contrast.

Chris Maun

Registered on January 28, 2009, 8 Posts, 47 Comments

Comment posted by Robert Dayton on November 28, 2009 at 12:19 AM

I've never seen an Aspen grove like this. Very impressive. Congratulations
for braving the conditions. You're efforts were rewarded. This is beautiful.

Registered on November 11, 2008, 281 Posts, 3958 Comments

Comment posted by Joseph Campisi on November 28, 2009 at 12:28 AM

Wow Scott, glad I decided to open the thumbnail! Love the unique perspective, and the light is wonderful!

Registered on November 24, 2008, 304 Posts, 3211 Comments

Comment posted by Scott Fricke on November 28, 2009 at 12:42 AM

Aaron and Chris,

Yeah, I had that thought myself about the crop, but I really liked the color of the tree at the lower right with the shadow of the branches behind the leaves and decided to keep it, but I may have to reconsider again.

Registered on January 19, 2007, 133 Posts, 1448 Comments

Comment posted by John Williams on November 28, 2009 at 1:52 AM

At a glance, those totally look like flames. Pretty cool!

Registered on September 6, 2007, 221 Posts, 5985 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Wong on November 28, 2009 at 2:33 AM

Nice glow from the foliage. The pano crop is an interesting one and I think it makes it more abstract than the usual aspen forest shot.

Registered on February 2, 2006, 79 Posts, 2629 Comments

Comment posted by Zack Schnepf on November 28, 2009 at 2:43 AM

Wonderful pattern, I love how the foliage breaks up the vertical lines on the trunks.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 403 Posts, 2528 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Budliger on November 28, 2009 at 7:58 AM

Beautiful display of light and color, works well as a pano too.

Registered on June 11, 2006, 113 Posts, 2116 Comments

Comment posted by Eva McDermott on November 28, 2009 at 8:32 AM

Fantastic color Scott. The orange trees do look like they are on fire.

Registered on January 4, 2009, 1015 Posts, 13229 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Sieren on November 28, 2009 at 12:18 PM

Scott, I'm loving the warm and cool tones here!

Registered on January 2, 2008, 360 Posts, 5321 Comments

Comment posted by Morris McClung on November 28, 2009 at 3:01 PM

Great color and light, and your comp for the pano works really well. Nice work!

Registered on May 7, 2007, 670 Posts, 19650 Comments

Comment posted by Harley Goldman on November 28, 2009 at 3:40 PM

Cool image with a great glow and colors. This one works really well!

I was out there in that big windstorm and had to cut up a couple of trees to get through. It was a howler!

Registered on November 19, 2003, 586 Posts, 11271 Comments

Comment posted by Dean Sauskojus on November 28, 2009 at 4:23 PM

Very attractive color here. Works very well as a pan. Would make a great print with all those warm colors. Great job.

Registered on September 29, 2009, 137 Posts, 2659 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on November 28, 2009 at 4:58 PM

That is very special light, Scott. These trees practically look like they're on fire. That was quite a wind. Amazing how many trees actually survive.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments

Comment posted by Phil Pogledich on November 28, 2009 at 5:44 PM

That backlighting is really incredible. Nice mix of light and shadow and cool and dark. I can't see anything to tweak.

Registered on August 24, 2009, 123 Posts, 3099 Comments

Comment posted by Kent Mearig on November 28, 2009 at 7:36 PM

I can see why you would be working toward printing this. It's totally stunning. I see nothing to critique, but I will give a warning to be careful with the sharpening in the bright leaves. You may even want to do a test prints of a small section with some different levels of sharpening to see what works best, and I'm almost certain masking the sharpening would give you the best results.

Registered on September 4, 2006, 237 Posts, 4748 Comments

Comment posted by Vance Gese on November 28, 2009 at 11:43 PM

Gorgeous Scott. Pano format works incredibly well here. While I can see the value of a crop on the right as suggested, I think I would leave this as is. The right hand side gives a bit more interest to the entire image by throwing a curveball and making the whole image a bit less uniform, which to my eye works better in this case. Just my 0.02 of course. Well done. Will make a superb print.

Registered on November 13, 2008, 298 Posts, 6629 Comments