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This photograph was taken on a beach in Chatham, MA. I have spent a lot of time photographing trees since I became a photographer. Before that I’m not sure I really noticed trees much more than anyone else. Now I am always looking for new tree photographs that appear to me to be different than my previous tree photographs. I observed this from a variety of different distances and angles before choosing to shoot it this way.

All landscapes require extra care in choosing the lighting. The best solution is to shoot bracketed RAW images with a digital SLR camera and a high quality tripod and then blend them together in Photoshop or HDR software. Since this requires equipment that not everyone has access to and image editing skills that are not beginner level skills, there is a more basic way of dealing with this complex lighting problem. Shoot from sunrise to 2 hours after sunrise and 2 hours before sunset to sunset. Avoid shooting other hours especially midday. Also shoot on overcast days when possible. A sensor sees everything in much higher contrast than our eyes. Working with the above mentioned lighting is much easier for the sensor to capture as seen by the eyes.

text and photograph ©2010 Paul Light all rights reserved