Endangered!

Jerry,

This is a beautifully composed image of this fern. I love how the fern fits perfectly in to the background of grasses and plants. The greens seem spot on to me. Lovely image.

Lon

I really like the line and colour of the fern.

This works very well Jerry!

Down with the cryptococcus fagisuga! Nice one, Jer

This is high on my list of places to get to. Always loved that one shot from here(THE shot). This isn't as powerful as that one but it sure does pop with that fern. I tried a browser crop of the background but ended up preferring it as framed. Thanks for the little lesson on the area too! You should MeetYourNeighbours the area real well!

Sweet fern portrait!

Stunning image Jerry. I love the grass behind the fern

In nice contrast with the lines of the grass. :)

Stunning. What an excellent comp.

Very well seen, also love the greens in this. excellent comp.

Love the greens on the fern! Very effectively composed too.

The fern against that sea of grass is stunning, Jerry. Gorgeous.

Thanks for your comments guys! It looks to be a really tragic end to another huge beech gap. I've thought that this location was OK in terms of health with good leaf coverage and little tree kill. This year is different. It looks like 80% of the beech have not leafed out and this is not good. It all happened in one year. Not sure until the botanists get in to the location and study the trees. The way I see it is, the trees will not survive if they do not leaf out and this was not a gradual die-off. It is real sad to see one of the largest beech gaps remaining in the southern Appalachians succumb to disease, pests and pollution . Over the next couple of years we will see the ecosystem make a dramatic shift and those beautiful flowing grasses will eventually die off as well. The was a very sad day for me and for those that have felt the same connection to such a unique ecosystem.

I love the image Jerry. The comp and color just pop and grab you. But I am wondering how your storyline fits the image - are some of those big trees and saplings are specimens of beech gaps? If so, they are sort of in the background and dont tell the story that you are after. But as an image, this is top notch

Arnab,

The grasses, ferns and the background American beech trees are what make up a Beech Gap Community. I forgot to add a link to my blog the gives the full story about this photo. I'll fix it ASAP! Here's a direct link to the post. http://jerrydgreer.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/the-southern-appalachian-beech-gap-critically-imperiled

Beautiful comp and color Jerry. Interesting read on your blog. Is this destruction of the beech gap caused by man's impact on the environment or due to a natural cycle?

Sweet image. We have beech bark disease (BBD) here in Michigan too. It is ruthless and leads to the trunks snapping very easily (beech snap) and it takes out the regenerated seedlings. There are some beech trees that show resistance, perhaps because of the texture of their bark. However, there is very little hope that the American Beech will persist here. That is unfortunate because beech is an excellent tree for forming cavities which benefits certain avian species and the mast is a valuable wildlife staple. Thanks for the excellent post.

Love those greens and the depth created by the fern.

Jery - Thanks for the biology lesson- always nice to know a bit more about the image and what drove you to the area. The fern appears just a bit too bright for me compared to the surroundings, though I'm sure this was a conscious decision. I think the background could be lightened and still have this effect.

Gorgeous, Jerry. Love it!

Harry,

Thanks for the response. There is no Photoshop magic here, the bright and dark areas fell on the landscape as captured. The very young fern is a very light green (look at the darkness of the stalk of the fern) and was lighted along the path of green by an opening in the canopy. This gave the feeling of the fern pointing you down the path of light. I also gave a great separation of the fern from the grasses beneath. It's great that the scene gave me exactly what I was looking for without the aid of Photoshop.