Valentine’s Day 2017

I have to admit that, to me, Valentine’s Day borders on a manufactured holiday contrived by greeting card companies and florists to capitalize on our emotions. But cynicism aside, it never hurts to share a little love. In the words of John Lennon, “all you need it love!”

So, in that spirit, I am sharing an old image that I have recently reprocessed. Previously, I processed this image in black and white, but recently decided to see how it looks in color. Hmmm, looking at this new version, I wonder what I was thinking with the black and white??

The tree in this image is the Angel Oak near Charleston, SC. Without a doubt, the Angel Oak is one of the most amazing trees you’ll ever see. You can Google it to learn all the technical details. Interestingly, you’ll find that estimates for the age of the oak range from 400 years to 1500 years. It is curious to me that no one knows how old it is. The Angel Oak is located in a park managed by the City of Charleston. It is a busy place with a constant stream of visitors that make photography a challenge. But on this day back in 2008, there was a light drizzle, which, coupled with the fact that it was the day after Thanksgiving and everyone was out shopping for Black Friday deals, I had this beauty to myself for at least an hour. It was a magical time to quietly explore the oak and get to know it without the cacophony of dozens of little kids running around and screaming. The lighting was from behind the oak, but it was soft, diffused, and quite bright due to the overcast sky. Perfect conditions for a subject like this to create a soft diffused glow in the backlit leaves. Just in case you’re interested, this is a multi-image panorama using a Nikon D2x (I told you it was old!) and a 50 mm focal length for each of at least a dozen individual frames. I converted the individual RAW files in Adobe Camera RAW, stitched them into a single image with PTGUI, then did the final processing in Photoshop. I hope you enjoy it!

Now get out there a spread a little love today!