Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => Landscape Showcase => Topic started by: Dave (Isle of Skye) on December 15, 2021, 06:14:07 am

Title: More Ghost Trees
Post by: Dave (Isle of Skye) on December 15, 2021, 06:14:07 am
Here are another couple of my 'Ghost Trees' type of shots taken on a remote and windswept beach on the Outer Hebrides.

I have now found the perfect beach for this sort of shot, that is sufficiently banked steep enough, so that lots of these amazingly surrealistic views are created all along at it at low tide and with sufficient black volcanic sand created several hundreds million years ago, still washing up onto the beach and mixing with the normal coloured sand, to create these amazing three dimensional looking fantasy scenes - so it really is just a case of me wandering around with my camera around my neck, for several hours at a time and choosing which ones I think are the best to take a picture of. Pure, peaceful bliss and very therapeutic given the current circumstances we all find ourselves heading towards once again..

Dave
Title: Re: More Ghost Trees
Post by: francois on December 15, 2021, 07:19:11 am
Yes, they do look like trees… beautiful and majestic trees. Processing is especially well chosen.
Title: Re: More Ghost Trees
Post by: RMW on December 15, 2021, 08:04:02 am
Fantastic !
Title: Re: More Ghost Trees
Post by: Bob_B on December 15, 2021, 08:54:36 am
Yes! I hope you will post more.
Title: Re: More Ghost Trees
Post by: Paulo Bizarro on December 15, 2021, 10:12:52 am
Wonderful. And a nice way of showing how fractal Nature is. These patterns occur at many scales.
Title: Re: More Ghost Trees
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on December 15, 2021, 11:23:32 am
Fantastic !
+1.

Great shots.
Title: Re: More Ghost Trees
Post by: Chris Calohan on December 15, 2021, 05:25:16 pm
+2
Title: Re: More Ghost Trees
Post by: Dave (Isle of Skye) on December 15, 2021, 07:21:39 pm
Thanks everyone, glad you like them  ;)

Yes it really is just a matter of staring at the sand beneath my feet to get these types of shot - so here is a tip if you find yourself on a beach taking shots like this: you need a medium zoom set to autofocus and f/16, but with manual exposure settings and colour balance etc, I always use my 24-105 for this type of work. Then find a scene you like and zoom in to find the best framing of it, as you sort of lean in with your body in an uncomfortable arc shape, until you begin to feel as though you are almost going to fall into the scene, but without putting your shadow (or your feet) into the shot. This way you can shoot down onto the scene with the front element as level to the ground as you can possibly make it, so you get good sharp details across the entire frame. Then fire away for a couple of shots and maybe even a couple of short pano's and then move onto the next surreal scene and repeat, as you work your way slowly across the beach.

And believe me, once you get your eye in, the next two or three hours will simply fly by without you even realising..

Dave
Title: Re: More Ghost Trees
Post by: Dale Villeponteaux on December 18, 2021, 10:05:03 am
#1 suggests dancers to me.

Regards,
Dale
Title: Re: More Ghost Trees
Post by: MattBurt on December 19, 2021, 12:31:48 am
Yes, so nice! Great find. Nice shooting.
Title: Re: More Ghost Trees
Post by: Arlen on December 29, 2021, 03:15:07 pm
I love these. You are really giving us some very nice "beach scenes".
Title: Re: More Ghost Trees
Post by: Mark Nadler on December 31, 2021, 04:10:01 am
Dave, these are great images.  I like both of them.  I've played with this technique and have gotten some great images but none as good as these two.

mark
Title: Re: More Ghost Trees
Post by: Peter McLennan on December 31, 2021, 11:43:58 am
Wonderful. And a nice way of showing how fractal Nature is. These patterns occur at many scales.

Indeed.  At first I thought they were drone shots.
Title: Re: More Ghost Trees
Post by: Dave (Isle of Skye) on January 04, 2022, 05:16:11 am
Wow thanks everyone for those kind words and if the weather wasn't so stormy and cold up here, I would love to be out taking some more.

Thanks again guys  :) ;) :D

Dave