Ancient Bristlecones, a photo from California, West

Photographer's Note

From the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains along Highway 395 outside of Big Pine, CA.

These hardy but slow growing evergreens are among the oldest living things in the world. These speciments are probably thousands of years old.

This photo was captured during what sofar had been a disappointing photo trip. At the supposed most photogenic grove of these trees about 1000 ft highter, it was overcast, snowing and freezing. On may way down, I saw this scene as the sun broke through the clouds. warming the bark of the trees.

A warming filter was used and some post processing was done to clean up dust in the sky and clouds.

AdrianW, jbweasle, dgarr, Tone, manatee, plimrn has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

AdrianW (2274) 2005-03-17 18:03

Nice shot! I like the balance between the sky and the trees in this composition - the colour contrast is particularly effective. The main tree is nicely on a third too. You've chosen well with Velvia as well, the colours really pop here. Something I would like to see is a larger version of the image, is there any reason why you're only posting 450px images? I'm wondering whether a little more headroom over the tree would help open the composition up a bit more... Anyway, a very good capture :-D

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jbweasle (9393) 2005-03-17 18:23

Fantastic light, great colours, dramatic sky, good note. If you can post larger pics (up to 800 pixels) we can see the effect even better :-)

Tone (101) 2005-03-17 21:40

great photograph. impressive rich colors, perfect composure, and that tree is a great subject. nice postwork, almost has a 3D look to it. i agree, wish it was larger photo

kolesn (591) 2005-03-19 10:53

Great colors! I wish I had this your shot a much bigger size, Douglas!
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Persuasor (599) 2006-08-07 14:45

Nice colours. Very strong blue sky, with that dinamic cloud and quiet (and very strange and intriguing) trees.

VClokto (0) 2006-08-17 3:11

What great blue, it s very beautiful. well done
Eric

manatee (4668) 2006-08-18 15:26

Hey Duglas how are you?
I thik we has been in some places in commun I like the ancient bristlecones pine forest, I'm was there too, but my shots are not so good as you, I like the contrast of the clouds and the tree, and the angle you use to took this shot, looks so glorous, you can make a poem with this picture.

Exelent

Elias

mdetay (4929) 2006-08-30 2:15

Hi Douglas,
Excellent capture. Excellent balance between the sky and the tree. Well done. Good capture.
Cheers.
Michel

cclaudiu (0) 2006-09-23 8:32

Even it’s a sad landscape it’s an interesting part of our world. Nice colors, sharpness and good DOF. As usualy an useful note.

plimrn (21344) 2007-06-05 12:06

Hi Doug,
What a whimsical composition; the ancient tree looks like a small, mad elf juggling clouds in the sky. The light, detail and color are all woinderful. HLJ, Pat

Photo Information

Copyright: Douglas Arrasin (darrasin) (2860)
Genre: Places
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2004-07-05
Categories: Nature
Camera: Canon Elan 7/NE, Canon 28-105 F 3.5/4.5, Fuji Velvia 50, Cokin Warm 81B (A027)
Exposure: f/16, 1/60 seconds
Details: Tripod: Yes
Photo Version: Original Version
Date Submitted: 2005-03-17 16:24