The Dance Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer’s Note

Hatfield forest is the last wooded royal forest in England in which all components survive: deer, cattle, coppice woods, pollards, grassland and fens.
The forest has been owned by King Harold, Robert the Bruce, Sir Richard Rich (the wickedest Englishman!) a Royalist villain and a Parliamentary hero amongst others, 5 of whom forfeited it for high treason.
It is now owned by the National Trust who are managing it as a working forest.
This coppiced hornbeam is about 300 years old and the split is natural for a coppiced tree of this age.
Coppicing is where the tree is allowed to grow to about 8ft high (to prevent deer gazing) and is then cut and the resulting new branches are harvested after about 10 years when the process starts again, a truly renewable fuel source.
I was attracted to this particular tree by the way the 2 halves reminded me of the distance between partners that is the essence of the Tango.
Tech: Sot in B&W mode using a orange filter, in PS I darkened the foreground a touch, adjusted curves sharpened, cropped and framed.

piozac, robbertjan, Cool-ice, cool_s15, Kenny10pin, omritoppol, greg, strangiato, Derrick, Ramonven has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

piozac (2052) 2004-04-19 4:16

Clever title for a great shot Richard! I like this central composition here! You've managed to capture those "dancing" trees in a very interesting way.
Well done!

nikant (91) 2004-04-19 4:50

Indeed very nice photo! You can almost imagine those trees dancing. BW was very wise choice. Maybe a little "color dodge" for the trees in the background could be done.

vbourrut (30046) 2004-04-19 4:53

This is a nice picture, very well presented, with great contrast and good lighting. The composition is well done too. Good one !

robbertjan (2906) 2004-04-19 4:56

Hi richard. Great picture of a beautiful old tree. Black and wite was agood choice. Very sharp and good contrast. Well done!!

Cool-ice (5289) 2004-04-19 5:12

Great composition, Richard !
The way we can feel the texture of the wood is really beautiful.
And always these nice contrasts (maybe the black tones are just a little less deep on this one).
And again an interesting note.
Really excellent, thank you !

cecile (4193) 2004-04-19 5:50

magnifique cet arbre, le tronc est superbe!

cool_s15 (4044) 2004-04-19 6:04

Another great B&W photo from you, I still like the tone of it. Nice composition and framing. Nice shot!

Kenny10pin (19301) 2004-04-19 11:30

Lovely shot, I like the white trunks of the tree compared to the rest of the background, great photo and well done

omritoppol (826) 2004-04-19 14:08

LOL, Good amount of details and texture of the tree, as usual good use of B&W. Just one thing, I would have use a shallow DOF to blur the background a bit. Like it Richard

greg (2835) 2004-04-20 2:55

Beautiful work. I'm interested by your use of the filter - do you think it gives you something you couldn't have got from PS by processing a colour image? Perhaps it gives a better brighness range in the original? Or it it just easier to visualise the results?

strangiato (76) 2004-04-20 11:38

Great shot Richard. The trees look crisp and clear and they are very appealing to me. Excellent composition.

wilkinsonsg (8640) 2004-04-20 11:55

IMHO a great image, subjects are well chosen and I like the large DOF to clearly capture the background - as I belive it adds context to the subjects.
The lighting gives the image a softer tone that suits the shot.

Derrick (176) 2004-04-24 8:08

Great theme to your photo! Absolutely lovely shot. Another great one Richard@

clodreno (0) 2004-04-25 7:04

Nice shot,and nice title for it. I love the range of greys in this image. The framing, meaning composition is excellent..
A great shot.

lemon_logix (1054) 2004-06-01 6:19

I love nature and this tree is alive! Like the way you framed it. Simple and yet makes one look at it for a while and a while more ..at the grains, at the bark at the roots..you've done well.

Clochette (8076) 2004-06-29 15:17

Hi Richard ! Very elegant pic, with a beautiful contrast. I like your view of tango dancers here..

kaychambers (1196) 2004-07-05 9:54

Very, very good....the trouble and I like your style, and find your submissions extremely pleasing to the eye!

Well done Richard, LF to future postings.

Regards,

Vic, Singapore. 5th July 2004

W1ell2Pom3me5 (0) 2004-07-08 14:49

Your B&W are amazing, I am try to do same works with my digital. Thanks for sharing
(I like the Tree...)

Oldtree (2457) 2004-08-03 10:20

Fantastic.
Good shot. I like those old trees.

flydragon (0) 2004-09-10 3:12

This is a fantastic picture !!
can see a face on the one on Right
this picture remind me a music Band i like so much
DEAD CAN DANCE
verry nice picture and beautifull black and white
well done
Simon

sorry pts tmrw

paido (944) 2004-09-10 11:05

The black and white gives all the magical feeling required for the mind to create all the movements of those trees!

Well framed ! that is a great shot.

naxius (16679) 2004-09-22 11:28

Is it the forest in the lord of the ring??! It looks gorgeous...
The B&W mode is great and emphasized the global composition.
I like it very much Richard.

Alexandre

Ramonven (124) 2005-02-17 4:27

Amazing Richard! What more can I say! :) Ramon

Photo Information

Copyright: Richard Birkett (merpb) (1970)
Genre: Places
Medium: Black & White
Date Taken: 2004-04-17
Camera: Fuji Finepix S2 Pro, Nikkor AF 12-24 f4, Digital RAW, Nikon L37C
Exposure: f/8, 1/45 seconds
Details: Tripod: Yes
Photo Version: Original Version
Theme(s): Some Trees , Some Roots!, Ramonven's Favorites... [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2004-04-19 4:11
Favorites: 3 [view]