It was great to have company on my lone tree post yesterday; thanks everyone! If you haven’t checked out the links in the Comments yet, I encourage you to do so. My safari mate, Beate Dalbec, blogged three of her lone tree images from our trip and had some sound advice on remembering to look behind including a beautiful shot to illustrate her point. If you aren’t already following David duChemin’s blog, you probably didn’t see his lone tree image. This is a fabulous shot that incorporates the sky and transforms a lone tree into a bushing bush. It’s an excellent example of shooting something conceptually versus literally and a skill that photographers like myself need to develop. David also shot some lone trees using a Singh Ray Blue Gold filter which he shared with several other photographers. I’m hoping he’ll post one of those images so everyone can see what a filter can do to a relatively unimpressive scene at high noon. Unfortunately I don’t own any Singh Ray filters but I do own a magenta filter which I used here on a lone tree.
When the circumstances allowed, others on our trip chose to shoot the lone tree up close, not with a macro lens but with a wide angle lens. Chris Ward left a link yesterday that took an approach of isolating part of a tree with a similar result. One of the talented photographers on the safari, David Taggart hasn’t posted his images yet but I’ve seen them. He has a great shot where rather than isolating the lone tree, the fence became part of his story.
You’re might be wondering about my image posted today. Let me pick up from where I left off yesterday. So five of us are at the fence shooting the lone acacia tree on the savannah and I’m getting a little bored with this tree. I wished that there was a more interesting sky or that the fence wasn’t in the way so I pulled my eye away from the viewfinder to look around. To my right I noticed a guy on a bicycle and I shouted out to everyone “Man on a bike”. It all happened so fast I’m not sure if anyone else got the shot. So here’s a blurry shot of a lone tree with a guy on a bike looking at the tree. Hey you take what you can get!
One final note on lone trees, my friend Stuart Sipahigil sent me a link in a Tweet that I absolutely must share with you all. It’s a video by Michael Kenna who was shooting trees in Hokkaido. There is a wonderful pearl of wisdom there that trees are like people and pictures of them are like portraits. Now that’s a great way to shoot a lone tree.
March 1, 2010 Update
I see that David has now posted his image shot from the fence. He used his Singh Ray Blue-Gold polarizer so be sure to check it out!
This has more meaning and ‘soul’ than any of the others I have looked at. Sabrina this is flat out wonderful and a ‘tree’ photo I would love to have.
This is excellent in both the composition and your post processing. I’m glad you were open to all that was around you and acted quickly.
Oh, I really like this. The lone tree (and grassy field) put the bicyclist into context. I can only imagine how far his journey will be.
Beautiful interpretation (and I love the mental picture I get of you yelling ‘Man on a bike”. LOL! Classic.)
Gee, I completely missed that post earlier. I remember the “man on bike” yell. Yours definitely turned out a lot better than mine. You really had the right timing here.
Thanks Everyone! I really have to laugh when I think about it again. The poor man was probably wondering what on earth we were shooting–”a tree in Kenya, give me a break!”