I photographed this tree along the bank of the east fork of White Oak Bayou as it winds its way through Burns Park in North Little Rock. I had discovered the tree the previous day and immediately noticed its leaning trunk and curving branches.
Returning the next morning with my equipment, I worked my way down to the edge of the creek. Holding my camera in my hand, I walked along the bank pausing frequently to look through the viewfinder to find the best location from which to photograph the tree.
Finally, after about fifteen minutes of climbing up and down the creek’s edge and fighting with the innumerable thorny vines that seemed to be everywhere, I found the composition I wanted. Then, I set up my tripod and captured the initial image.
On my computer, I cropped the image into a 1×1 square to eliminate a lot of extraneous “clutter” in the frame and repositioned the tree slightly to the left. I use the term “clutter” because it did not add anything of value to the overall photograph.
So the tree would be the focal point and everything else would blend into the background, I spent time increasing the contrast of the image by adjusting the sliders for contrast, highlights, shadows, whites, and blacks. Reducing texture and clarity created an image with a softly focused look to it. Finally, I added some vibrance and saturation to ever so slightly boost the little bit of color that remained in the grasses, mosses, and a few of the trees.