17
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Alan Brown's picture

Lady of the Woods

*** This image gained an honorable mention in a juried exhibit ("Trees") at The Darkroom Gallery that attracted over 1100 entries worldwide ***

*** Honorable mention in the April 2019 competition entitled "Inspired by Nature" hosted by exhibitionswithoutwalls.com ***

Treasured for its healing, protective and fertility properties the Birch (AKA 'Lady of the Woods') has played an important spiritual and mystical role in early man's lifestyle and the subject of ancient European folklore.
With a delicate paper-white bark set against almost-black branches, this patch of silver birch provides a wonderful study in contrast.

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4 Comments

Stunningly beautiful! Nice choice with B&W!

Big thanks for your kind words Steven.

There's something a bit surreal about this image, Alan, which lifts it well out of the ordinary. At a glance, it reminds me of film images made with a diffuser at the enlarging & printing stage, in which the shadows "bleed" rather than the highlights, as when diffusion is used at the capture stage. Did you do something equivalent here? Maybe it's simply because those inverted vees are in a darker patch of bark.

Thanks Chris. I worked this one quite a bit to get the look I wanted. The diffusion/softening you refer to is partially the result of lowering the clarity.