Roots needing help

[Eastree]

A couple weekends ago I took a walk in the woods, and found this tree.

I was trying to capture its interesting (nearly symmetrical) root structure on the bank, but also trying to somehow indicate that it's a tall tree.

I used the only lens in my inventory at the time, the 18-55mm that I bought with my camera. I'll at least improve technique while I (albeit slowly) save for better lenses.

Any way, the image:



Canon 30D
18-55mm f3.5-5.6 lens (IIRC zoomed out)
ISO 800
1/80sec exposure


So .... I'll take any and all criticism (as much as I still like the image)

Should I have used the flash in at least one shot, trying to illuminate the roots?
Should I have used a lower ISO (though the woods were quite dense and shady)?
Everything else I did wrong?

I hope to revisit the site for a possible re-shoot before TOO incredibly long (like 3 or 4 weeks)

[Bluenoser]

Well, it's a nice shot, but I would have gotten much closer and made the roots the subject. Eliminate the galring sun off the ground in front, that takes away from the roots. You could have captured this up close and had only a bit of the tree above the roots showing. The indication of a tree would still have been there and it would have left something to the viewers imagination - how big is the tree? has it grown straight or angled because of the roots?

[Eastree]

I may try that!

The glare in the bottom of the water was a concern to me, but I guess i was too tied up with trying to make it seem more tall tre-like and lost the roots with the wide shoot.

[falchion]

Hi there,

I agree with bluenoser - I think that with the limited width of the lens you've got you're probably not going to get the whole tree and roots in the image with a single shot (would probably need one of the 10mm ultrazooms). Could perhaps try a vertical panoramic if you've got a decent tripod? Otherwise you may be best of closing in on the roots for a full fram close-up - could be good for a B&W conversion...

Lovely colours though.

Richard.