JDeRuosi

They Say There’s Still Magic in That Old Maple Tree

They Say There’s Still Magic in That Old Maple Tree

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Description
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Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi

settings

Aperture f/16 ISO 100 Shutter 6/10 Focal Length 1800/100

upload_date

Jul, 2015

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650

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+30

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Behind The Lens

Location

“They Say There's Still Magic in That Old Maple Tree” was taken at the Portland Japanese Garden in Portland, Oregon, in the fall of 2013. http://japanesegarden.com/

Time

The image was taken at 12:54 p.m. on October 17th. I got really lucky with perfect weather when we were there. It usually starts raining in the middle of October in Portland and then doesn’t stop until around May.

Lighting

Since this was a family trip, I was limited on choosing how long I could stay in the garden and how long I could wait for the perfect moment and light. When I got to the tree, there were already several photographers there, so I took photos nearby while waiting in sort of an unstated, yet understood, queue. When it was my turn to shoot, people had mostly cleared out and I had the tree to myself for a short while which allowed me to take my time. While I was setting up my shot, another photographer came up to me and suggested I wait to shoot until about 3 p.m. when the high fog would burn off and the sun would shine through the leaves, making the tree glow. It was good lighting advice and would have been a beautiful image, but that plan also had its drawbacks. I had the tree to myself right then (at 3 p.m. there were dozens of photographers all trying to cram into a tiny space). I really liked the current light with the high patchy fog; it had a mix of diffusion and spotlight qualities in all the right places. I also really liked the leaf glow I was getting; the 3 p.m. level of glow I’ve seen in images can be really strong. While there’s nothing wrong with that, I wanted to try something different.

Equipment

This was taken with a Canon XTi (400D); I have a 7D Mark II now. I used the 18-55mm kit lens at 18mm which was the widest lens I had at the time. I shot several bracketed sets at different apertures as I wasn’t 100% sure what depth of field I was going to like best and I wouldn’t be able to come back to the location anytime soon. The images I chose to process were shot at f/16 since I liked the bridge just starting to have a little softness. I used ISO 100 for low noise and bracketed the shutter speed for this set at 2 stop intervals at 1/6”, 0.6”, & 2.5". Luckily, there was very little wind with the longer shutter speeds so movement in the leaves was minimal. Essential for this image was my Vanguard Alta Pro 263AT tripod (that I love) which allows me to get really low to the ground with its multi-angle central column. The camera was just high enough for the lens to clear the tiny bamboo fence in front of the maple.

Inspiration

Almost twenty years ago my husband and I lived in the Portland Metro Area for awhile and I often heard about how beautiful this specific Japanese maple was. I have seen many fantastic images of the tree over the years and always wanted to see and photograph it myself. I have Fibromyalgia and was so sick when we lived in Oregon that I never made it to the Japanese Garden. In 2013, I coerced my family into taking a two day side trip to Portland after visiting relatives in Vale, OR, just to photograph this tree in the fall. I had been told it was a very long walk to get to the tree, but it turns out that there is handicapped parking at the Garden entrance which the tree is very close to. What struck me when first seeing the tree was that the maple was smaller than I expected. I didn't think it was as big as it looks in photos; I do know the standard growth size of these maples, but I still thought it was bigger than it is. Ah, the fun you can have with perspective and a wide angle lens. Or like the TARDIS, it's just bigger on the inside. In all the images of this maple that I’d ever seen and admired at that point, I had never seen anyone compose to include the bridge. I didn’t know the bridge could be in the composition until I was sitting on the ground under the tree. Obviously, this tree has been photographed so much that other people have shot the tree with the bridge, but at the time I was thinking, “Oh cool, here’s a different take on the subject.”

Editing

I processed two versions in Photomatix: one version for the tree trunk, one for the leaves and the light on the bridge. I made some basic corrections to each version in Lightroom and blended those together with a mask in Photoshop. Next I cleaned up distractions in Photoshop, mostly stray reflections in the water. Then I used Nik’s Dfine for noise reduction. Next I used On1’s Perfect Effects and its internal masking to selectively enhance saturation, sharpness, texture, contrast, tame highlights, and add a tiny bit of glow. About a year later, I became an Apprentice in the Arcanum and I learned about luminosity masks and more about controlling chromatic aberration. I then revisited the image and did a better job removing chromatic aberration in Lightroom which I blended with the original .psd as a layer in Photoshop with luminosity masks. I redid the sharpening, also controlling it with luminosity masks. Adjusting sharpness well without luminosity masks with all those leaves would have been a nightmare. I adjusted the crop slightly at the top where the trunk gets really thick and heavy on the advice of my Arcanum master.

In my camera bag

I’m a “be prepared” kind of photographer; I carry a lot with me. My main bag has the Canon 7D Mark II with Vello battery grip and lenses: 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6, 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5, 70-300mm f/4-5.6, and 50mm f/1.8.; plus, filter pouches with a Breakthrough 77mm X4 10 stop filter, a Formatt Hitech ProStop IRND 9 stop filter, and holders and adapters. I really love using Xume magnetic filter adapters with the 10 stop filter. There are standard things like extra batteries, lens cleaners, cards, remote shutter releases, etc. The unusual things are a yoga towel for lying on the ground or when I fall in the river, an asparagus rubber band for unscrewing stuck filters, and a GoGirl and toilette paper. I have another bag full of speedlights and a third bag of high powered flashlights for light painting, lights for spinning, headlamps, sunscreen, bug repellant, cortisone, and a bug net for the head, wet weather covers for me and the camera, etc. I have a fishing vest I use as a photo vest and load up what I need to the vest and my camera bag based on the location. I also always have wellington boots in the car and a tri-legged camping stool. I even have another bag full of cold weather clothing.

Feedback

The Japanese Garden has a number of rules for photographers and can get grouchy about tripod use. Read up on the photography rules before you go to any botanical garden: http://japanesegarden.com/join-and-support/photographers/. You can also contact gardens to see when their peak fall color times are. There will be other photographers in the garden, but you will get your turn. Be patient and find the balance between taking the time you need and giving the next person his/her chance to shoot. Do test shots in the lighting conditions while waiting and be prepared with your settings to spend the time you have on composition when it is your turn to shoot. Then get really low, try different compositions and apertures. Look for a unique composition. Bracket exposures even if you don’t do HDR, especially if you can’t easily revisit the location. Listen to advice from other photographers, but do what feels right for you in the moment. Ironically, the most interesting part of the story of this image was just getting to the Japanese Garden at all. My father had cataract surgery shortly before leaving on the trip. Walking out of the restaurant we stopped at in Pendleton on the way from Vale to Portland, he missed a step and fell. I patched him up and then we spent the first day in Portland getting him checked out by an ophthalmologist. That night my mom got sick. It was a comedy of errors, but I got there through sheer will power. Sometimes that’s what it takes to get the image.

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JDeRuosi

JDeRuosi

They Say There’s Still Magic in That Old Maple Tree

Description

Behind The Lens

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