Chris Jablonski

Churchyard Tree in Hagley, Tasmania.

January 9th, 2019

160mm · f/11.0 · 1/60s · ISO 200

I love bare deciduous tree branches and the dynamism they show in their infinitely varied patterns.

Australia seems to be 99% evergreen eucalypts, gum trees in common parlance. Although I left England when I was three, I think I still feel that that is my spiritual home, and regularly visit Tasmania, in late winter & early spring, drawn largely by the European flavour imparted by the deciduous trees established in the nineteenth century.

Appropriately enough, I found this tree in a churchyard in the early evening chill, but the image it suggested eventually was inspired by Asian scroll paintings. The monochrome reflects the palette of the cooler months.

Landscape

14 Comments

Bobby Wood May 25, 2019 - 11:20 am

[Edited]

Chris, I totally love the abstract look of this shot! Especially the simplicity of how it's conveyed.... Well done man well done!

Chris Jablonski May 26, 2019 - 4:33 am

Bobby Wood

Thanks, Bobby! Appreciate your kind words.

Shawn Mahan June 2, 2019 - 9:30 am

Great shot. Was this against a cloudy day? I ask because I am wondering how to get a nice white background like that.

Chris Jablonski June 2, 2019 - 9:54 am

Shawn Mahan [Edited]

Thanks, Shawn. No, it was a washed-out sky just before sunset, with the last bit of sunlight glowing red on the branches, and made an interesting colour image, too, if not a vivid one. I've just added a very similar image to this portfolio which WAS taken against a cloudy sky. An overcast day with uniform featureless cloud background is the easiest to use to start with. But you can do a lot in processing. The background is off-white, as you can see at the borders. There's endless fiddling with tones in various way to bring out the right amount of branch detail in images like this, but fun to do.

Shawn Mahan June 5, 2019 - 4:56 pm

Chris Jablonski

Thanks for the explanation. There are several shots I have on cloudless days, where there is still a blue hue. It is never super dark, nor all that light (because I am shooting in the peak day so much). A lot of times those would look great in b&w if I could move the sky either towards black or towards white. Being in the middle makes a fairly bad pic. I will have to keep playing.

Chris Jablonski June 6, 2019 - 6:47 am

Shawn Mahan

Shawn, if you convert to B&W by selecting mainly/only the blue channel of the RGB, your sky will be much lighter to start with.

Julian Ray June 2, 2019 - 7:07 pm

The chaos and strong composition here are very intriguing. A strong image with lots to say.
Good work Chris!

Julian Ray June 2, 2019 - 7:11 pm

Just for fun Chris, have you crafted a version without dodging our the right side?
It would be interesting to see how the near solid black line on the right side of the frame would comment on the chaos of the left mass.
Fun to play with ideas.
Thanks

Chris Jablonski June 6, 2019 - 7:38 am

Julian Ray

Thanks, Julian! I thought I’d replied to you already, but I must’ve closed the tab before my reply uploaded. There’s a very similar image in this portfolio with that hard right border.

Here, I was experimenting with further departure from reality, especially once the graceful flow in the branches reminded me of the scroll paintings. I’m not happy with the soft border on the other three edges, and I think that dodging on the right is too even; I was trying to depict a bit of tree just “floating” in space. Hope to post a re-edit.

Julian Ray June 6, 2019 - 7:16 pm

Chris Jablonski

The fun is in the exploration. Keep playing and yes please show us what you come up with!

gregorythanos July 7, 2020 - 10:12 am

Great capture!

Chris Jablonski July 7, 2020 - 10:56 am

gregorythanos

Thanks, Gregory!

sharath m May 14, 2022 - 5:20 am

love this!! a beautiful photo!

Chris Jablonski July 6, 2022 - 9:03 am

sharath m

Thanks very much, Sharath! I use it on greeting cards - it's very well suited as a sympathy card (appropriately enough, as it's from a tree in a church cemetery), but also for other occasions; its neutrality has made it very useful.