What a great compliment

What a great compliment, the biggest of my career.
I am so happy to receive my biggest compliment ever on my photography for this particular photograph. This photograph turned out to be extremely popular with photographers and non photographers, a view point I had never taken any notice of until this particular day.

Wherever I go my camera comes with me, this day was just a short trip into the country to get eggs and have coffee with Daniel a farmer friend. More often than not I have places to photograph in my mind but today I passed this set of tress as I have many times before and never saw a photo opportunity.

This dull Saturday morning light made them look totally different as if in another place, another world a new discovery. It was a sunless cold day projecting a flatness to the countryside, but bright enough to need sunglasses to shield eyes from the glare.
The flatness of light made depth difficult to judge until I came across this trees fading into a vanishing point. The lack of a visible horizon grabbed my artistic eye and I was encouraged to stop and find the right position to shoot a few photographs. I tried several positions but this one proved the best. There is no distraction of blue sky, and just a little detail in the snow covered foreground adding more depth, to me an exciting opportunity to capture the bleakness of the moment, yet make it appealing to a viewer.

Normally the rule of thirds apply this is where one chooses how much foreground and background to photograph. Balance is important, the general rule is to have one third sky two thirds foreground or two thirds sky and one third foreground.

Rules are just guidelines general practice to add uniformity, I have always been a rebel and today these rules were made to be broken. Looking through the viewfinder these one third proportions did not look right throwing the image off balance so I broke the rule and went half and half. The roots of the trees are only just below the horizon, helping make the photographs more unusual. Neither sky nor foreground played an important role this photograph the main focus is the leading to a vanishing point.

Another thing to note with paintings or photographs an odd number balances better than an even number.
Weather and lighting conditions is always a fun challenge to any photographer. For this photograph there is far more light then one would first imagine due to the complete whiteness and its reflection of light.

In these conditions underexpose will give a correct exposure without making the snow look blue or dirty. I bracketed my exposure and in this case found it require 2 stops underexposing. Many cameras today have a plus and minus exposure setting don’t be afraid to use it. I suggest taking a photo first on the auto setting then over or under expose depending on the situation the nice thing today is the results are immediately available to view, and the right corrections can be made.

The contrast between the silhouetted bare branches of the tress stand out well on the landscape, far more interesting than a summer shoot in full bloom with a multitude of distracting colours.

For display this looks best on Canvas with no boarder or frame which would stop the eye from expanding beyond the image.
I had some wonderful reactions and feedback on this photograph. I posted on several websites and Face Book pages. The comment that made it all worth so much was from Giordano who lives in Italy he said “Really this artistic photo taken by you is wonderful, in my opinion. Thanks a lot because you shared it: seeing it, I became happier”

Making one person happier by looking at my work made my day and I hope I can help make others happier when they view my portfolio. It is always great to hear from people, please make a comment I will do my upmost to reply in person