I have five birch trees outside my house. I love how their bark cracks, spreads, and forms little stripes (stretch marks?). I have other trees too, but their bark is 'just' brown. I took several shots of just a birch trunk, but it looked very strange, as if over-sharpened, over-contrasted, and out-of-focus when it wasn't. But that's really how it looks up close and personal. I found one tree had some ficus vines starting to grow up the trunk, escapees from the ficus mat covering one of our walls, so I decided that the ficus would make a good comparison in many ways - for size, for focus and depth, and, of course, it would give me that bit of green and red-orange needed to make the image pop a bit more.
Very cool, Carol. I have a birch tree in my backyard but that would take, I don't know... 25 feet of shoveling through 3 feet of snow to get to it. It's also not very old so does not yet have a very thick trunk, although it is a paper birch and the bark comes off in strips and curls at the ends which would have been perfect for you, as the paper underneath is pretty peachy. Back to your image. I like the light color of the birch but definitely agree that the ficus leaves really give it a lot of interest and creates a nice composition coming in from the corner. I notice the ficus leaves have bumps. I wonder if they have little larvae sleeping in those. Nice also are all those dashed lines that are in the bark. Very cool, shot but then you always show something that is interesting and fun to check out. Yay! we are officially past the half way point!! congrats :-) Eury
ReplyDeleteNice Carol. Bark seems to be the item of choice for today! I
ReplyDeleteVery abstracty but yet still obvious what it is. There's a lot of different colours and textures and shapes, but it's not too busy. The hint of orangey red in there is perfect :)
ReplyDeleteI think the inclusion of the leaves is an excellent idea and really makes the image pop. The bark looks great but the colour is a bit drab and the leaf colour really does totally make up for that. The final outcome is awesome!
ReplyDeleteI think the leaves do help the image, although I think the bark is stunning without them. I have a lot of silver-birch where I work I love the colour they have.
ReplyDeleteNice progressing from top left to bottom right with the bark to leaf colour and texture transition
ReplyDeleteVery nice close up , I love the contrasts and there are many of them, very good control of the light too
ReplyDeleteNice contrast of the little leaves and the textured bark. Nice choice for your poster cohesiveness... although I know that is not your goal...lol
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