p1259670812-5

Black and White Aspen Forest

If you’ve ever hiked through a dense forest you may know the feeling of seeing endless trees. For me, it’s not claustrophobic or frightening but visually relaxing. Having your view filled with repetitive patterns, colors and textures is a really cool, intimate feeling. I guess my eyes and brain get to relax a little when the input is simplified.

I’ve been asked a number of times where I captured this photograph and I really wish I knew. I’ve been able to narrow it down to the Kebler Pass or Ohio Pass areas of Gunnison County, Colorado. I had experienced the “feeling” long before actually capturing it visually. I had been working on this photograph for several years before editing photos one day and realizing that I “had” it. That’s why I don’t remember exactly where it was. I know it was autumn because in the color version there are a few yellow leaves way in the back. That’s part of the reason for the black and white presentation. Getting rid of the color was critical to the success of the photo. Another reason for the monotone treatment was control.

Most Aspen trees don’t have that birch-like white bark. They can range from greenish to brownish but are rarely “white”. These were pretty close though. Treating the image as a black and white allowed me to lighten the bark of the trees without messing with the “eyes” or other dark parts using the tools within Adobe Photoshop. The resulting artistic treatment was not what I saw but it was what I felt and reacted to when the image was created. Back in the “Ansel Adams” days using really great black and white films and proper darkroom technique I could have captured the same tonality. So, for those digital skeptics among you, the best images are created using the best techniques available to artists at whatever time they’re created. Ansel Adams would definitely be utilizing Adobe Photoshop tools and would probably be utilizing digital capture.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy “White Forest” as much as I do. It’s a great seller and looks awesome as a large single image on a wall. (It doesn’t like to share though.)

Sorry this post is a week late. I’ve been having some website hosting issues which I hope to resolve in the next few days. At least it’s working again but when the host can’t tell you why it crashed and it takes three days to recover it’s time to move on. I’ve been doing a lot of web work this week with a remodel of my wedding pages at www.color-west.com the wedding stuff is at: http://www.color-west.com/Templates/weddingnew.html. I’ve also been getting a few requests for prints from stock images. Those are hosted at: http://dusty-demerson.artistwebsites.com/. I hope everyone has a great week. It looks like I’ll finally get to do some skiing instead of website work. Yea!