This ended up being the field trip photo that had the most impact for me. I spent a lot of time on a different shot of some orange and blue kayaks, and I only took one photo of this tree. When I got home and saw it on the computer, it really stood out to me, maybe because it's surprising to see the red tree trunk, so it looks a little like a negative or infrared photo. I think the scouting we did in the first half hour was really helpful for thinking about what we could be photographing. The other thing I took away from the field trip is that I need to try lots of photos and styles each time I'm out. Sometimes I have a particular photo in mind and it works out and other times I'm surprised by what I get in the camera. On this shot, I used the Nikon picture style "vivid" which gave the photo more saturation. I wish I'd tried it in the "more vivid" style, just to see how it would have worked.
I like this image very much. The red/green contrast is echoed by the contrast between the shape/texture of the tree and the shape/texture of the juniper bushes behind the tree. I wonder what it would look like framed so that the tree branches on the sides are equidistant from the edges of the picture -- i.e. either both sides extending beyond the edges or neither side extending beyond the edges? I like the broad depth of field -- all the branches appear to be in focus. Sometimes this shot would be taken so that the juniper bushes were out of focus but i like it this way -- because bushes are so lovely and because of the contrast with the tree. The colors are dynamite. Would it have been possible to have someone hold the bush in the lower right corner out of the way? This photo has a ton of emotional appeal!
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