There is a small forest near my current place where I like to walk during work breaks. It’s a small nature reserve along the river Cam in Cambridge, England, south of the city center. Some months ago, there was fog on this day, and it all looked haunted. And I saw this tree in the middle of the path, almost like a weird question mark or a crack in the world. I like to take pictures of trees; they always look interesting to me, but this particular one seemed more interesting than usual that day.

I shot it with my old trusty Pentax K5, and afterward, I processed it. I like using LUTs as starting points, in this case, one that emulates the Fuji color chrome film emulations I use with my Fujifilm X100F. I didn’t use this other camera here, as I wanted to get a more compressed perspective. I have a Sigma 17-70mm that worked well for this purpose.

Aside from technical considerations, I wanted to make the picture look very simple. The tree trunk is like a black line only, crossing the frame diagonally, and the background, thanks to the fog, gives a good contrast to it. I didn’t want to do a typical tree picture, I didn’t want to show the canopy, or any other details, like the bark textures. The intention was not to do a postcard but a more observational kind of picture. As it happened and as I found it.

Now whenever I go past this tree, I remember this picture, and I stop to stare at it. It can look very different, depending on the light, or the point of perspective. I may do a series of pictures of it in different times of the day or seasons.

What are the TWO most impactful features that make your image a good photograph? Don’t be shy!

I like the contrast of the tree trunk; I wanted it to be almost black, like a crack in the picture. And the color, I managed to get some pastel tones I really like. I think these two things make for a very atmospheric picture with a very haunted mood.

If you could make this photo again, what would be the ONE thing you would like to do better or different?

I have been tempted to do more pictures of this tree as it happens to be in a place I visit very often. It’s interesting to see it at different times of the day, in different weather conditions, or from different angles to get different shapes.

Omar Parada shared this photograph with the FRAMES Facebook Group.

Photographer

Omar Parada, Cambridge, UK

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Equipment and settings

Pentax K-5, Sigma 17-70mm
Processed in Darktable using a Fuji Color Chrome emulation LUT and various exposure/color/cropping tweaks