The Merry-Go-Round Weeping Willow

How things don't go to plan...

The first time I'd tried to shoot this huge great Tina Turner wig of a weeping willow was when I first had the 10-24mm lens and I would have used that as a blip, except I used a completely different image for that day...

In that one (a weekday, most probably) the local leisure centre, over the river and toward the right hand side had its security lights on. This being a Sunday, no such luck and so now no white glow to backlight that dark bank of trees. Weather forecast had this evening as cloudy but this was very high and patchy, though light pollution showed no stars. The moon is also absent, due to its current stage.

So, my efforts with the 14mm fixed lens (eqv to 9mm in DX) on the full-frame D700 should have got me that 10mm shot from before, but better, right?

Nope. The breeze swirled the willow fronds about but the background remained resolutely black and the tree just came over-bright and lost detail when the aperture/iso opened/increased. So, a rethink and then abandonment of the 14mm and the tiddly 16mm fisheye that I had pocketed on the way out came to use. Fourth shot in I decided to include these concrete bollards (yes, they look like wood) and immeditaely the image 'clicked', as I did.

Originally destined for a black & white, I still had to crop out a bit of the lampost from the top right corner - you can see its light source from the shadows on the bollards, whilst darkening and increase in contrast of the foreground. Much more shadow detail extracted from the sky and upper areas, too. The black & white didn't work - the lack of tonal range within all that orange on tree and ground just turned it to grey mush but some hue alterations and saturation levels (reduced, would you believe?) came to this.

The willow now looks less imposing and more elegant whilst the straight line of uprights add to the curving sweep, the merry-go-round aspect of my title. I rather like it; far from perfect (what exactly would be, with something like this?) and one I wanted to do before the willow got too heavily laden with leaf growth that's already started. The conditions were disappointing but luckily, adapting both approach, angle and lens got to a possibly better and more impactful result.

Thanks to all who wished me well yesterday as I felt so lethargic and such - I might be feeling better now that others are asleep but, heck, I got my Blip and that's what I'm good at, so stuff it! Like my pic, adapt or be damned!

Don't forget L key to see the movement in the branches better.