Storm Clouds Nearing, Wall

Fleur thanks you for all of the kind words from yesterday's blip.

I'm always drawn to trees, and this one, near the village of Wall, is close to where Mom now lives so it is convenient to use it when the opportunity arises.  The weather was threatening, alternating between bright sunshine and sleety showers.  It deserved a more moody representation of the scene, although I will be honest and say that it wasn't quite as black as the processing turned it out.

Technical:  A 3 stop ND grad held back the sky and allowed detail in the foreground, Into Lightroom basic tonal control and then converted into b&w using Silver Efex Pro.

I have added a few extra images on Flickr.

I read an interesting article the other day.  Tom Hogan has commentated on Nikon cameras for many years  His site is a treasure trove of information to which he applies his own inimitable style.  He wrote an article on rational zoom lens choices and after reading it I took a little time out to analyse what focal lengths I use most often.  In the past the statistics on this site would have helped but until they return I was reduced to pen and paper.

Between 16mm and 70 mm, covered by my 16-35mm f4 and 24-70mm F2.8 zooms, I shoot more than 75% of images within the 16-35mm focal length range.  Tom Hogan suggests that rather than cover all of the focal lengths by using three zooms (adding the 70-200mm lens to cover the range from 16-200mm), you could do away with the mid range zoom, substituting a standard 50mm lens and saving a considerable amount of weight.  I'll certainly bear this in mind as I have just booked a two week US photographic trip in September.  It's again part of my thinking around camera system choices.