What makes a good photograph?
Well, some have a little of what it takes and some just about have it all. “October Tree,” by Star-Sentinel Columnist Fred First is a “photographer’s photo” and a study in sublime beauty that is simple in presentation yet complex in detail. The less than full canopy of reddish leaves in the tree suggests the inevitable change of the season and life itself. The stark tree in the background framed up beneath the arching right branch of the main tree also has a limb arching down at a slightly sharper angle creating a tunnel effect that the eye follows to the deepest part of the mountainous background in the distance. The clouds above offer a variety of texture and form – from the puffy pastel softness of those in the top left to the streaking contrail that arches from the top right of the tree out of the picture implying the promise of a rainbow. The line formed by the contrail also acts as a bright and renewed extension of the long dark shadow that stretches itself across the grass into the base of the tree on the lower left. The valley flows colorfully outward with the one discernible distant mountain making “contact” with the tree itself – connecting the most distant part of the picture with its primary subject in the foreground. The variety of demurred color found in the grasses, trees and mountains are in perfect harmony throughout. Finally, the tree itself seems to leap from the ground as it rises up with the rock upon which it is perched – the limbs on the left and right disappearing just out of view suggesting the mystery of eternity. The perfect fall tree? Well, there are so many out there . . . Send us yours! ([email protected])
