Yesterday we returned from a weekend trip to Sequoia National Park. While the standing trees are awe-inspiring and amazing to look at, the dried roots of the trees that had fallen were just amazing to me. Looking *up* at roots isn’t something I’m used to doing.
Many of the Sequoias are 2,000-3,000 years old so those roots have been around through so many great events on our planet, and were there before many of those things even happened. Its humbling to try to creatively photograph something that was already ancient when Christ walked the earth, or when the Roman Empire was the greatest civilization on earth.
While processing this image, I thought monochrome would work best in accentuating the shapes and textures in the wood.
Ancient Roots, November 2010
I have to admit, though, that I got a little carried away with Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro. The “Antique Solarization” treatment gave an interesting effect that really seemed to accentuate the shapes present in this image. While it may not be your cup of tea, this image really is growing on me.
Ancient Roots II, November 2010
I’ll put up all of my images soon on a webpage for Sequoia National Park. In the meantime, ponder the labyrinth of time!
Love the roots. It works beautifully as B/W. The solarization is an interesting experiment, and actually kinda cool, but the depth and richness that make the first one so strong just aren’t there.
That’s very cool. Reminds me of a hallucination I once had… 🙂
That’s awesome Greg. Reminds me of something out of Lord of the Rings.
Thanks for the comments guys!
PJ, I’m with you: the black and white has a depth and detail the other one lacks.
Gary, I’m not asking any questions, I swear! 🙂
Russ, its funny you mention the Lord of the Rings, because I remember thinking about Fangorn Forest while I was making this image in the field…
I like them both, maybe even the second one more, but I can see why PJ likes the first one. It is dark and brooding like a Weston image.