Behind The Trees

Love the range of exposure here..nicely done!

Beautiful, Youssef. I like this a lot. Processing looks real nice, too.

Youssef,

Perhaps I'm jaded having photographed and wandered in this Cathedral grove of black oak so many times, but I have to go along with your gut feel on this one. Don't get me wrong, it's a vibrant and beautiful image, just not up there with any of my favorites of yours. What mostly is an issue for me is the blocked up trunks. Usually I don't care in these trees and I know there is near-black moss that grows on these guys, but it's more because they occupy so much real estate in the frame, and they'r all black, just reminds me of how poorly film handles these situations.

Come to think of it, if you cropped just inside both the large, forward oaks and just showed the light show that occupies that space between the two, including the nice light on the meadow floor, that might work better - at least for me. Just a thought.

Lon

Funny that you should make that crop suggestion Lon, because it was the light from the meadow in the exact area that you mention that caught my eye first. I used that area to meter off of as well to make sure I did not lose the tonality there. Let me consider that crop. Thanks.

I don't have the benefit or pleasure of connecting this image to any other or to any place I've never been.

That said, it is all about light and shadow, once again. And in this image we have the source of light, our sun, its effect from behind the foliage of the trees as it penetrates them and comes through to the camera, how it looks reflected from the grasses over on the right, and how that reflection contrasts with where it is in shadow due to the tree trunks. And then, again, the effects of no-light where the sun don't shine; i.e., in the silhouette portions of those tree trunks.

So, I'm just sayin', never having been there, not remembering any other posts by Youssef (no pun intended ), just this one standing on its own, I appreciate it for the aforementioned reasons.

One thing I would say is that your signature over on the left seems somewhat ostentatious to me. I understand the desire to protect IP, but there are degrees....

A lovely fall scenic in Yosemite Valley. Wonderfully backlit.

I'll bet it was challenging! It's not easy to shoot straight at the sun like this. I like the way it sets the color to glowing though.

I would echo Lon's thoughtful critique.

again, lovely glow to this with the graphic forms of the trunks. well done.

I like this combination of high contrast but also saturated color. That's not an easy combination to make work, and this does so very well, IMO. Also like how you made a horizontal pano out of vertical trunks. Creates some nice repetition.

A little too much contrast for my taste, but it's not unnatural looking at all. I think you did a very good job with the light in this. I like the pano a lot for the comp as well. Beautiful image.