The Tree

I believe that analysing the pictures taken in past is a great way of learning too. The below snap was taken in Dec 2006 at the Berlin Olympic Stadium. It was about 9 am in the morning but still quite foggy. Visibility wasn't so great so looked at opportunities to click subjects which aren't too far. The photos of the huge stadium obviously didn't come very well. The tree looked quite spectacular with the tall Gate tower in the background.

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Berlin Olympic Stadium - Main Gate

ISO 100, 28mm, f/8, 1/125 sec

As you can see majority of the branches have shed the leaves but the lower branche with orange-coloured leaves look fresh and gives an idea of how the tree might look in a few weeks.

 The fog actually helped remove the distracting elements in the background and the the dark color trunk and branches provide high contrast. The parallel lines on the floor point towards the 2 main subjects so that's a positive but there's a huge tilt (towards left) - one just can't miss it looking at the tower on the right hand side - the most basic rule broken here - need to keep that in mind in future (The electronic level display in EOS 7D would have helped :-)). Another thought - The small building on the left is distracting - so wonder how a vertical shot would have looked like - with just the tree and the tower - too bad i missed it. If i had taken a few steps to the front (or zoomed in a bit) i could have gotten the tree more towards the 2/3rds area.


While i was writing this i wanted to have a look as to how it'd look in B&W - so here it is. Looks interesting - doesn't it? mainly because the original picture didn't have too many colors and the contrast if the main factor in here.

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Do let me know how you like the picture - and any further improvements you can think of!