Pride of Portland
Possibly the most photographed tree on the planet. In the running at least, and rightfully so, it is a glorious tree on screen. I had the good fortune of a trip out to Portland during fall season so this was an absolutely *mandatory* stop. It was not quite peak fall color, was about a week early for this particular tree, though some of the other japanese maples in the gardens were in the deep rich red stage. In my previous post I talked about not having done much image modification with Photoshop yet. However, I sometimes do quite a lot of tweaking in Lightroom, so In FULL disclosure, I have shifted the colors in this image some to bring out a little more orange and red. In my initial take I shifted it dramatically but then realized that the near rainbow of colors here was quite compelling in its own right and decided to pull back to a more delicate shift in the 5-10% range. Clearly a lot of vibrancy used in this too, though I went pretty light on the saturation (+5). It's one of those images that depending on my mood and the lighting in the room, etc., I will either be very happy with it or want to continue tweaking it.
Met up with fellow photographer Kevin Benedict on this trip. There was a major downpour for multiple days in Portland but we managed to catch a small window where the rain lightened up enough for us to hit the famed Japanese Gardens for this epic tree. The tree is surprisingly small, and even after reading very specific descriptions of its location and warnings that you can easily walk right by it, I did in fact walk right by it. To shoot it, one needs to set up very low to the ground and so it was a bit of a challenge shooting upwards through the dripping canopy in rather dreary light (although that ultimately helped make the dynamic range more manageable). It took multiple attempts with the drying towel handy before getting a clean shot. Fortunately the poor weather kept most people away and so we were able to shoot in peace for quite a while. There was almost no breeze at all so the "Pixel Shift" feature on the K-1 together with the terrific Tamron 15-30 lens grabbed some nice detail.
For those who have the opportunity, the Gardens are well worth the effort and time, they are gorgeous, especially in fall, and recognized as one of the finest public Gardens in all of the USA. An absolute treat for fall color photographers.
Best viewed in full screen.
Pride of Portland
Possibly the most photographed tree on the planet. In the running at least, and rightfully so, it is a glorious tree on screen. I had the good fortune of a trip out to Portland during fall season so this was an absolutely *mandatory* stop. It was not quite peak fall color, was about a week early for this particular tree, though some of the other japanese maples in the gardens were in the deep rich red stage. In my previous post I talked about not having done much image modification with Photoshop yet. However, I sometimes do quite a lot of tweaking in Lightroom, so In FULL disclosure, I have shifted the colors in this image some to bring out a little more orange and red. In my initial take I shifted it dramatically but then realized that the near rainbow of colors here was quite compelling in its own right and decided to pull back to a more delicate shift in the 5-10% range. Clearly a lot of vibrancy used in this too, though I went pretty light on the saturation (+5). It's one of those images that depending on my mood and the lighting in the room, etc., I will either be very happy with it or want to continue tweaking it.
Met up with fellow photographer Kevin Benedict on this trip. There was a major downpour for multiple days in Portland but we managed to catch a small window where the rain lightened up enough for us to hit the famed Japanese Gardens for this epic tree. The tree is surprisingly small, and even after reading very specific descriptions of its location and warnings that you can easily walk right by it, I did in fact walk right by it. To shoot it, one needs to set up very low to the ground and so it was a bit of a challenge shooting upwards through the dripping canopy in rather dreary light (although that ultimately helped make the dynamic range more manageable). It took multiple attempts with the drying towel handy before getting a clean shot. Fortunately the poor weather kept most people away and so we were able to shoot in peace for quite a while. There was almost no breeze at all so the "Pixel Shift" feature on the K-1 together with the terrific Tamron 15-30 lens grabbed some nice detail.
For those who have the opportunity, the Gardens are well worth the effort and time, they are gorgeous, especially in fall, and recognized as one of the finest public Gardens in all of the USA. An absolute treat for fall color photographers.
Best viewed in full screen.