The lower elevations around Boulder are starting to show signs of life as the grasses are starting to green and some of the early bloomers are sprouting buds. People who follow my photography know that one of my favorite subjects are trees. I find the form and shape of trees fascinating. They make for great subjects for photography but learning to compose and arrange successful photographs and images of trees can be very difficult to achieve. When photographing trees, one of the first things one must do to capture a successful image is to learn to arrange the chaos into a cohesive image. It’s just as important in photography to learn what to exclude from and image as it is to understand what elements should be kept in the scene. This could not be more true when photographing trees.
Often when I make a successful image of trees, the scene grabs my eye as I walk by a location. These photograph is no exception. I was hiking on the Bobolink trailhead which is part of Boulder, Colorado’s beautiful Open Space and Mountain Parks system. I was interested in the budding bushes that were growing along the creek in a classic Colorado riparian habitat.
These bushes on their own were not compelling me to setup my camera and make images. It was an overcast day, which are the conditions I favor when shooting more intimate photographs of trees and landscapes. Photography is about capturing light, and the soft diffused light of an overcast day helps to evenly light a scene and prevent harsh shadows from obscuring details. Soft diffused light helps to create a more painterly scene and allows for all the subtle detail, shapes and colors to shine. As I walked by this scene, the combination of the budding flowers and this beautiful Cottonwood tree caught my eye. It was quite a challenge to arrange the chaos present in this scene into a cohesive image. After many lens changes, multiple tripod setups and compositions I was finally able to arrange a pleasing composition. I eventually settled on using a telephoto lens to help compress the scene and isolate the bending branches of the cottonwood trees amongst the budding bushes.