From the Greenway

Gallery: LandscapePosted March 27, 201488 views4 comments

The Greenway is a paved walking trail in Nashville, Tennessee, which will be about 75 miles in length once completed. It follows the Stones River in its entirety, meandering from Hermitage in the extreme east of Nashville to the Shelby Bottoms in downtown Nashville, on the Cumberland River. I took this image from the trail on one side of the Stones River, looking over to the bank on the other side.
There wasn't a lot of color, so I stepped out of my comfort zone to process in b&w. My interest lies in the birch tree with exposed roots. Hopefully, my processing has helped to guide your eyes to this area. All of the trees lining the bank have their roots exposed, due to the eroding of soil during wet times and high water.

Hasselblad H4D
Carl Zeiss 250mm/f5.6 Sonnar lens
ISO 100
Gitzo tripod with custom camera mount

Comments

4 comments

Comment posted by Alan LaFaver on March 28, 2014 at 10:41 AM

Disclaimer. I don't know jack about real "art", especially B&W, so the following is purely my opinion based on what I like to look at. I've checked your website/portfolio, and to me, you are a real pro who knows what he's doing. Someone I can look at and say, "I hope I can make images like this one day". So, I feel awkward giving a critique, but I will, based on what I think looks good.....

I think this is a classic looking image and your processing looks perfect to me. I really like this image and subject matter. I like a lot of varied grays in B&W images, which you have here. I'm drawn as much to the "Y" tree as to the other, but I'm fine with that. Only thing bothering me a bit is the equal sized bright wedge shaped sky and dark wedge of water. Maybe because they're the same size, and pinching the left? Can't say exactly, but I can't focus on the trees, branches, roots, and their chaotic shapes, as much as I'd like.

Just my 2 cents,
Al

Registered on February 28, 2014, 18 Posts, 147 Comments

Comment posted by gary phillips on March 28, 2014 at 12:26 PM

Hi Michael. Quite a chaotic image that I'm having a tough time getting my mind around. I do love the birch with exposed roots, but it is tough to isolate it's beauty amid competing elements. There is no denying the detail in this shot, to me though, it seems the detail is lost amid so many details. Just a tough image to convey what I'm sure you saw and felt. I greatly enjoy your work and insights and hope you don't mind my 2 cents.

Registered on October 24, 2013, 185 Posts, 4136 Comments

Comment posted by Wesley Picotte on March 29, 2014 at 1:28 AM

Very intriguing subject matter. I can see why you'd be drawn to the roots, as you mentioned.

I concur with Gary, inasmuch as isolating the thing you want to convey from everything else within this scene is difficult.

I can see what I assume is dodging / burning, along with contrast work. The latter (if that's what you applied) seems to extend across the entire image, so perhaps more detailed masking might help simplify this a bit. I think a different crop would help, too. If indeed the roots are the subject, coming down from the top would help.

Registered on December 10, 2013, 4 Posts, 40 Comments

Comment posted by John Williams on March 31, 2014 at 9:27 PM

Oh that's a tricky one. I really see where Al's coming from; for me, the dark water especially breaks the flow. Unfortunately, cropping it out removes some of those fantastic roots too. I do like a version with the bottom cropped off to just _above_ the roots, which gets rid of the whole shebang.

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