Limbs, part 1

So I had this idea of taking pictures of bare tree limbs against a light sky and displaying 3 of them together (click on the pic above to see a bigger and more detailed version).

I think they're some sort of oak trees. The missing leaves expose branches that twist and turn into all kinds of shapes. When you stare at them long enough you start to make out shapes of objects. I thought it would be fun to shoot straight up the trunk of the tree so you're looking straight up into these twisted branches.

The first problem I had was trying to see through the viewfinder. Because I wanted to get right on the trunk, I couldn't get underneath it to look through the viewfinder. So I simply placed the camera up against the tree and shot each picture without trying to compose it first. I went completely around each tree trying to catch every angle I could. The results were mixed...some very interesting shots and some didn't show anything of interest.

The second problem was exposure. I was shooting at 1/10 sec and f22...I wanted the pictures to be as sharp as possible. Shooting dark branches against a light, overcast sky is hard to do without losing detail. I did do some shooting on a clear day with a blue sky but I didn't like the shadows.

Landscape photography is not really my expertise and don't have much experience doing it. This will be a fun experiment. I'm waiting for another overcast day so I can go out and try again.

The above picture is 3 I put together that I thought were interesting. There's more from the same session I haven't played with yet.