Taken with Nikon D40 at Snow Canyon State Park outside St. George, Utah on October 11, 2008. Manual Exposure Mode, Nikon Raw Format. Edited in Lightroom 2.
We visited Snow Canyon the weekend of the big snowstorm in Salt Lake City (glad I wasn’t there). It was fairly chilly but still had a good time. I wanted to stay for hours more but the kids and girls with getting cold. The overcast skies provided very interesting backgrounds for our photographs. Stay tuned for a whole bunch of family pictures from our stay in St. George.
I took this shot near the top of a very large petrified sand dune. I just loved seeing where the plant life has developed on the petrified dunes. The folds and curves in the rocks are a surprising contrast with other rock fragments that are just strewn about.
In Lightroom I did the black and white conversion, added a sepia treatment in the split-toning panel (give a color to the highlights and darks), adjusted the contrast, made the light spot in the corner show up more and adjusted the darkness of the shadows a little using curves.
Now a question for you. I’ve been debating on whether or not the bush on the rock line is distracting. I’m considering removing the bush and the other small areas of grass that creep into the scene at the rock line. I think they take away from the rock/sky transition. Let me know what you think. Hope you enjoy this image and remember to enjoy yourself behind the lens!
Rob & Julie Snow Family Blog 
Rob,Forget half the comment I made. My brain didn’t see the light in the upper right side. So, I would just take out the bush and leave the grasses.
Rob,I personally like the contrast between the living and the dead.If you take out the living maybe you should add a black raven in the braches.
Rob, for nature’s sake I would leave that bush. The tree looks like it has an eye and they could have conversations back and forth. I would leave it but don’t listento me.
Thanks for your comments. I chose the name based on the anchor points of the photo and the strong directional feel from lower left to upper right. Perhaps these elements feel trapped in the corners. Your comments on the bush are very interesting. The theme of the photo is very forceful and I don’t think the removal of the bush would diminish the theme. However, as Jason described, some kind of relationship between the older tree and younger bush is present. I feel that the tree either failed due to lack of water or grew too large for the limited soil on the sandstone. Perhaps the greediness of the large tree was its undoing? Will that lesson be lost on the young bush? Time will tell.Perhaps I’ll try removing the bush to accent the starkness of the boundary between rock, sky, and the lone old tree. I find such boundaries very poignant.
In this photo my eyes move left to right from the scraggly tree to the bush to the stone, then up to the top right corner. If you removed the bush it would send my eyes to the darkness of the bottom left corner.For me there is a bizarre connection between the old tree and new growth in this photo. The bush plays a vital role in emphasizing this. In the tree, there is a lot of desperation in the tendrils of new growth that just did not collect enough water for life. To no avail, the tree seems to be reaching out to the bush.A very cool pic.
I didn’t think the bush was too distracting either. I think it is a great picture. Almost a dreary feel. Perfectly explains me mood lately so it was great for me to see it. It gave me such a srong feeling.
I think this picture is gorgeous and I love the editing you did. As for the bush, I hadn’t really noticed it before so it’s not too distracting. But if you want to make a great picture even better, maybe you should take it out if it will look natural enough. Why the name?