How do I explain this.... idea.... that I had.

[MrVimes]

I was out today with my new 30d canon and even newer sigma 17-70 lens (and my old old 75-300 canon lens)

I ended up in some evergreen woods. Trees like christmas trees only about 30 times taller and slimmer. Not as green, more grey-brown ( a kind of mysterious and photogenic matte-very-dark-brown) ground like carpet ,dusty and mossy, (not like the ground of most wooded areas where I live; over-trodden, bland green, boring)

In these woods I found a small dead tree. Wisened and old. It stood out amongst the perfectly spaced and aligned (this must be a man-made forest) evergreen trees. It had a mystical quality about it. Something other-worldly, fantasy.

I sat down, and looked at this tree. Spent time trying to get a good shot of it in low light (and trying to bully my camera into shooting at a lower than middle exposure compensation) I eventually got an ok shot and after that I continued to sit in the serene surroundings.

Here I got the idea. Why not put a few things in the scene to suggest this is not a place in our world but a place in a fantasy world? Why photography for the sake of itself? Why not use photography as nothing more than a tool to create an image that captures a moment in a story, or a feeling, or another world?


All that may seem obvious to a good photographer, and I am a little tipsy so I am in rambling mode, but it seems like even the best photogs on this forum are screaming out - "photography for photography's sake" They seem to emphasise the photography part of the whole thing.

A scene in a film (such as some of the emotional parts of the Lotr films) doesn't say "I am showing of my filmographic skills" You don't think about how well the cameraman or cinematographer has created the scene, you think about the story. You are emersed in the scene.

I want to be able to create photographs that do the same thing. They make the viewer forget about the photographic qualities of this photograph and instead become imersed in the 'story' of the scene, or just immersed in some other way than the norm.


Of course all this is 'talk' because my creative skills and photographic skills are pants.




edit: Here is the tree. In hindsight it's a pretty average picture of a dead tree... but you weren't there.

[Queen Pee(nis)]

As I scrolled down it looked like a skeleton hunched over, giving me the finger. Interesting pic...

[Drizzt]

awesome pic. I see what you are saying, trying to make something from like pan's labyrinth or something, right?

beats me how to do it. Seems to me it would be alot harder with a still picture than a video, also you would need money to make something look either really funky like pan's labyrinth, or something old like in LOTR.

also, i hate evergreens, when my balls lands under them in golf there is a fucking 6 inch layer of the needles under it.

[DHermit]

HDR that picture at the exact same time you took it today, the lighting will be awesome. And make sure to use like f/2.8 or 4.0 and focus on the center of the tree.

[methd]

the lighting is very dull and i doubt it will get better for the woods, so HDR is a good option.

[elchorizo]

That tree is definatly a cool subject. I agree that you should keep shooting it and find something cool to do with it. Alas, creatively I suck, so I'll just give a 3rd vote for the HDR thing here.