Thursday, January 31, 2008

Bent but not broken

These are a couple of the birch trees in my yard--trees that should be vertical but are now kind of horizontal. We had a major ice storm here ten years ago, and the weight of the ice caused many of the trees to bend or break. If the trees didn't stand back up right after the ice was gone, they're still like that 10 years later. We were without power for 13 days during that storm. It was the suckiest suck that ever did suck.

We had gorgeous blue skies today. I wanted to try out the graduated neutral density filter I got for Christmas. As you can see, I didn't rotate it correctly when I turned my camera. The darker blue should be on top, not diagonal. This is SOOC except for cloning out a distracting leaf in the upper left corner and running USM. I thought this photo pretty well illustrated what the filter does.

25 comments:

Tera Fraley said...

Very cool!! love the bent tree! The sky is so prtty!

Michelle said...

well your filter may be diagonal but i really like how it follows the line of the tree. beautiful color!

Margaret said...

I like seeing how that filter works. I love that tree, too, and interesting story behind it!

Jess said...

Cool trees! They really tell a story of a hard life...

Neat effect with the filter too!

Chell said...

i like it on the diagonal because it kind of adds to the treee bend.

HeyLady said...

That is so interesting. Amazing how it can bend so far & not break.

laulley

Anonymous said...

Gosh I have forgotten what a blue sky looks like!! GREAT photo!
cari

Mom2Drew said...

BEAutiful sky!

Amy said...

Very beautiful color! Your last sentence of the first paragraph had me giggling!

~JustJulie~ said...

Gorgeous blue sky! I like the line of the tree coming in from the left.

Danielle said...

that's way cool. I love the look and may have to get one of those.

Sharon said...

I really hadn't noticed the diagonal line until you mentioned it. But I think it works well with the bent branch, it sort of follows the same line and emphasizes it.

Mandy said...

That is one cold Maine sky, isn't it.

I love how there is so much open space around the tree, and your blue is SO beautiful. Great, sharp shot.

Unknown said...

Wow, that filter is very cooL!

Jen said...

Like Dr. Seuss! We have many trees like that here... from hurricanes!

pat said...

Nice work. I agree with Michelle's comment about the way the filter follows the curve of the tree.

For Over 29 Years... said...

That's really interesting about the trees. Great picture also.

Anonymous said...

Cool filter. What beautiful blue color

Cindi Koceich said...

Thanks for showing an example with that filter! That would be a fun one to have! I love your title btw!!

Val said...

Cool shots! I'm not sure if we live in the same region, but i remember the ice storm of 1998 too, and our birch trees are still leaning from it. I was pregnant with my daughter and working as a waitress. It sucked.

Ginnie said...

"It was the suckiest suck that ever did suck." Too funny, LOL! Great shot.

Kristi said...

Those skies are just incredible! What a great photo!

mel said...

wow! thanks for showing us the filter, i like how it turned out with it angled

Angela2932 said...

I hate ice storms. But that's a really cool pictures. Thanks for sharing the info about your filter, what it does and how you can adjust where the effect falls. Your accidental diagonal worked well!

Tori said...

cool trees! Love the blue sky...