Reaching Tree

[TimothyB]

Tried to capture the "hand" reaching up from the frozen lake - don't know if I caught it all, though.
[IMG][/IMG]

[dcclark]

First, welcome! Cool tree -- I like the idea., and I also like the reflections.

Now, here are a few comments that might help you out on the photo.

1. The driftwood tree on the bottom right is distracting and unnecessary -- if you can recompose to remove it, that would probably help. The same goess for the twig on the far left.

2. The sky is pretty thoroughly blown out, while the beach is very dark. This is a hazard of the occupation, when you have a scene like this -- lots of light from the sky, and very little from the ground. There are a few solutions. Probably the best solution would be to recompose and cut out more of the beach (also solves #1), which will make the sky appear much more clearly. Another solution would be to use a graduated neutral density filter to dim the sky, which would balance the lighting more (I'm a filter junkie, so I have a grad ND -- you may not, so don't worry about it).

I really do like the "hand" idea, and when I read your description, I could see it right away. Recomposing to make the "hand" even more clear might be good, for example, by getting down lower and looking upwards more. You colud still include the reflections, but less of the beach -- thus solving #1 and #2 at the same time.

Keep up the good work -- you had a good eye for this photo, now it's more about the details of composition and lighting.

[TimothyB]

Cropped the original picture - thanks dcclark.
[IMG][/IMG]

[winterstar]

I didn't see it as a reflection...I thought at first that it was just a "stick" in front of the water.

What would be nice is to see the complete reflection, rather then have it run off the page.

Or a different angle so I could see the hand sticking out of the water.

Love the idea.