Kukui Nut Tree, Kaka'ako

[jasonrandolph]

I shot this one a couple weeks ago.  Like many people, I often like to let time pass before working with an image to cut emotional ties with the image and give me a more objective evaluation.  Anyway, here's the result...

[Jeremy Roussak]

I shot this one a couple weeks ago.  Like many people, I often like to let time pass before working with an image to cut emotional ties with the image and give me a more objective evaluation.  Anyway, here's the result...

I like the way the two trees interact with each other, but the colour of the sky is weird and makes me uneasy. Perhaps that's what you intended.

Jeremy

[RSL]

Jason, Very nice. Sure makes it clear which way the wind blows. Might be even better in monochrome.

[jasonrandolph]

Thanks Jeremy.  The color was intentional, in large part because I find blue skies with few clouds boring.  I'd be interested in hearing if people think I went too far in altering the color.

I'll give monochrome another shot.  Results I got yesterday weren't satisfactory, but my editing time was limited by other things going on.  Will post later today.  Thanks Russ.

[Lisa Nikodym]

The somewhat desaturated look doesn't work for me here.  It could work in full glorious color, or it could work in B&W or in almost-desaturated, but it doesn't work for me in this in-between state of saturation.

Another suggestion:  I think the composition would be much stronger if you cloned out the palm trees peeking over the horizon, and just left the two kukui nut trees to focus on.  The palm trees detract.  Without them, and after changing the color one way or the other, I think I'd really, really like this one.

Lisa

[jasonrandolph]

Thanks for the feedback Lisa.  I'm usually not one to do much cloning, but you make a good point.  It may be worth my time on this one.

[John R]

The somewhat desaturated look doesn't work for me here.  It could work in full glorious color, or it could work in B&W or in almost-desaturated, but it doesn't work for me in this in-between state of saturation.

Another suggestion:  I think the composition would be much stronger if you cloned out the palm trees peeking over the horizon, and just left the two kukui nut trees to focus on.  The palm trees detract.  Without them, and after changing the color one way or the other, I think I'd really, really like this one.

Lisa

The mix of shadow and light, where there is good detail in both, is excellent. But there is also an overall feeling of having captured some wonderful light. I think we have to look at the overall scene to deteremine if the arrangement of trees is pleasing or not. It is after all a natural scene, and it looks good to me. It is one thing to clone out a pop can, but quite another to start eliminating elements from a natural scene. It is very difficult to get the right exposure on the back of silver-like leaves and this is right on. Though the overall feeling is one of surreal light, this is the way I remember some of the silver birches.

JMR

[jasonrandolph]

Thanks John.  Here's a monochrome version...

[Jeremy Roussak]

Thanks John.  Here's a monochrome version...

I like it more than I liked the first version, but I'm not sure about your conversion: the leaves in the centre of the main tree have become rather muddy.

Jeremy

[John R]

The BW monotone does not work for me. It seems to lose the quality of light that was conveyed in the colour version and the more subtle grey-green-whites of the leaves and grasses. Not to mention the blue-grey of the sky which really echoed and reinforced the landscape. But perhaps its just that I am now partial to the colour version.

JMR

[jasonrandolph]

I made test prints of both versions last night, and the color version worked much better.  I think John is right.  The color version conveys the special quality of light that I saw when I was setting up my shot.  While I normally prefer B&W, I like the color version much better in the medium that matters most: the print.  Thank you all for your feedback.  I always learn something from your comments here.