Click to embiggen
These dead trees were on the edge of the Hooker Track carpark and caught my eye after taking some *more* photos of mountains towering above me 🙂
Initially I had my exposure down a stop but when looking at it on the computer, the darker image had more appeal and I saw the trees as dancers, bending and reaching with their arms/branches, and somehow frozen like that.
So after an edit in LR it was off to Nik Silver Efex where I spent ages finding just the right preset – the aim was to highlight the pale branches but minimise the fussy texture details of the trees behind and the grass in the foreground.
Then one more step into PS to further enhance the tones and tweak the final presentation just that little bit more.
The tree on the right first caught my eye when processing – I could see it reaching out very clearly and so it inspired this final outcome. This was merely an opportunity shot – was about to walk past when what was in front of me made itself present, and I took the time to walk around and capture some frames.
For an almost accidental shot, I find myself oddly drawn to this image, in fact it was the first one I processed.
Has an image taken you by surprise like this?
Learning to See Light 
This is an excellent composition and postprocessing brings out the best of it. Love the tones and the textures and the natural flow if this branches through the image. And you adhered no one of the key lessons for photographers: Don’t take only the obvious image, look around for more opportunities. As the saying goes “the best image might be behind you”….Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, I find that its the “found” images that I tend to like the most rather than the ones that were planned in advance. And yes, its all about keeping your eyes open to see what else is there!
I think one of the reasons photographers really take photos is because *something* caught their eye and they want to share it with others. Found photo opportunities have more of a story, I think, because the situation called to the photographer and grabbed their attention for some reason. 🙂
Yes when you put it like that, it makes perfect sense to me 🙂
Just beautiful!!
Thanks 🙂