Ghost Tree

During a recent trip to southern Oregon my wife and I stopped off at one of the most well-known parks in the Pacific Northwest, Crater Lake. The lake is located near Klamath Falls, Oregon about 100 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. It lies inside a caldera, or volcanic basin, that was created after a large eruption collapsed the 12,000 foot Mount Mazama over 7,700 years ago.

This place has inspired people for hundreds of years and no where on earth can you find  a deep, pure lake, so blue in color it defies imagination. The sheer cliffs, almost two thousand feet high, surround the lake and at its center are two picturesque islands. It is a place of immeasurable beauty.

As Lois and I drove around the lake we noticed the tree pictured here. It looked like it was one of the original guests to this strange landscape. When you look carefully you can see the tree appears to be fashioned like a cork screw, twisting itself into the sky above. It was an amazing view.

I set up my tripod and took five exposures each 1.5 stops from each other. In effect I created a seven and one-half stop range to capture the lightest white and darkest black of the image. When I returned home to my studio I use a product from HDR Soft called Photomatix Pro to tonemap and combine the five images. I then used a tool from Topax Labs to return some of the detail that was lost during the tonemapping process and finally, used Photoshop to render a Black and White image as my final creation.

I learned the art and craft of photography when I shot black and white photos as a freelancer for a local newspaper in central California. I still miss the smell of the chemicals, and mixing them together using my secret recipes. I believe that this tree just looks better as a black and white image. I get the same feeling looking at it now as I did when I first saw it. Dark and foreboding, very mysterious and ghost like.

Tell me what you think, B&W or do you want to see it in color?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 5:52 pm and is filed under Travel and tagged with Black and White, Crater Lake Oregon, HDR, Landscape, Mt. Mazama, Photomatix, Portraits, Post Processing, Tree. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.