Natures First Green is Gold

The early spring colors of trees in New England call to mind my favorite poem by Robert Frost
titled “Nothing Gold Can Stay”.

" Nothing Gold Can Stay"
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

This image was taken earlier this week in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts.

I know it’s usually not a good idea to have an even number of subjects. But I thought these two trees perfectly embodied the spirit of what Frost was writing about, the ephemeral beauty of spring in New England, a season of transition.

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

Any critique or comments are welcome

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

Canon 5D MKIV, Canon 70-200mm f4 lens at 176 MM, ISO 400, 1/4 sec., f16

Ed, The poem tells the story and the simplicity of the scene with the nice fog over the trees brings it home.

The interesting about what @Lon_Overacker calls a ‘ping pong’ image is that it’s ‘bad’ if you unwittingly create such a composition. But when you purposely want the viewer to go back and forth comparing two subjects, then it becomes interesting. The difference between the two in not only appearance but in personality engages the viewer rather well. It’s certainly a creative approach. I have to be with this for a while. It’s not so much beautiful as it is intellectually challenging. I would make the yellow tree as intense as the green to emphasize the difference and further intrigue the viewer.

Another words, I don’t see this as much as a story of the change in seasons as a comparison of two objects.

Here is Diane Arbus’ famous Twins image which demonstrates my point. Your attention purposely bounces back and forth between their faces as you compare. At least I think she meant us to do that.

Great shades of green and shapes. The fog is a sweet bonus too. Looks really good to my eye and I like it a lot.

Looks like spring finally caught up to you guys, Ed! I was hoping to see some of your images from your spring color excursions. Odd numbers usually work better, but in this case I think the two trees work nicely together and feed off of one another since they are different colors. The color palette works well as does the layering which gives the scene some wonderful depth. Of course the fog at the top ties everything together and provides some lovely atmospherics. I hope you don’t mind, but I did a little rework by ever so slightly dodging the highlights in the yellow tree to get a little separation from the BG trees. Anyway, beautifully done. I love the poem BTW.

@Larry_Greenbaum @Ed_Lowe @Igor_Doncov @Harley_Goldman thank you all for your comments. As usual, I very much appreciate hearing your thoughts. Robert Frost may be best known for “The Road Not Taken” (paraphrased - two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference), but “Natures First Green is Gold” is my favorite for it’s stronger connection to the natural world.

@Ed_Lowe I do like what you did with your rework, enhancing the yellows makes a subtle, but meaningful difference. So thanks for that. It has not been easy photographing spring here this year. We had record cold in early May (it even snowed), and foliage turned 10 days later than normal. Then in mid-May we got warmer but had a very unusual (for May) stretch of 12 straight sunny days without any rain. I strongly prefer to shoot trees on overcast, foggy, and rainy days, so once the trees started to leaf out, the weather did not cooperate.

Igor, you make some interesting observations about “ping pong” images, and “The Twins” is a great illustration of the concept. In my scene, I had the option of including a third tree to the right, but deliberately chose to show just the two trees in order to create the “ping pong”. Does my image invite the comparison of two objects, or does it tell a story of seasonal change? For me it does both, because it invites a comparison of two similar objects at different stages in a progression of seasonal change. It is comparing two seemingly different points in time, but taken at the same moment.

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Like that highlight. It makes beautiful connection between 2 main trees

I’ve always loved this poem. With the photo, it’s just a glorious combination. And the two trees go together so well, also. There’s enough going on in the background that I don’t mind “breaking” this rule.

I like the juxtaposition of the two trees - not only in color but in shape and form. The tree on the right looks almost manicured while the tree on the left is more free flowing. The fog and mist above the trees also adds a lot to the mood of the image.

Totally agree. A great example Ed where two competing elements are working more in concert than in opposition. What really helps here too is the fog/mist to obscure the background, ensuring all attention is paid up front.

I like Ed’s rework.

A great and unique image. Beautifully seen and captured.

Lon

A little late to the party here. The difference shapes is what I immediately noticed, even more than the color difference. Strong composition takes the eyes immediately to the subjects but the background coloration makes it more difficult for the main trees to really stand out. I played with it just to see what would happen if the background was desaturated and darkened just a bit. I don’t know if it helped or hurt.

Original

Revision

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@svetlana @Kathy_Barnhart @Brian_Schrayer @Lon_Overacker @Bill_Chambers
thanks to all of you for taking the time to comment on my image, I appreciate your input.

These trees (plus one other not shown) were by themselves in a very large farmers field the size of a couple football fields. I’m not sure why the farmer would have pruned the maple on the right like this, but it certainly looks like that is the case. This aspect of the image was also part of it’s appeal to me.

Bill, I agree with your point, and I do think it helps, especially when combined with the suggestion from @Ed_Lowe to goose the yellow tree. Thanks for the suggestion.

Very nice concept here, Ed. I like what Ed Lowe did to add some contrast by emphasizing the yellow high lights in the left tree. I would encourage you, if possible, to take another look at the scene and go back and shoot it with a wider angle lens from a closer range and maybe open up the apperture, both will decrease the DOF and hence reduce definiton on the background which will put the emphasis more strongly on the two trees in the foreground. The fog is nice, but IMNSHO, it doesn’t do enough to separate the focus in the photo on the two trees apart from the background.

Greg, thank you for your comments, I appreciate the input.

Unfortunately these trees were on private property, and quite far from the road, so I didn’t want to walk out into the field, to get closer to the trees. While I like how the telephoto compresses the scene and makes the fog in the hillside above appear closer than it really is, I can see the point about the separation of the two trees from the background.

Here is a rework with some “digital fog” (negative de-haze) painted into the background trees, in an attempt at more separation. Do folks think this looks realistic or not?

with Ed Lowes change and “Digital Fog”

Ed Lowes Rework

Appreciate the issue of private property - have similar qualms sometimes. Hard to say what “looks real” - when you’ve already seen one image, does a slightly different one look more or less real? Don’t know.

First of all I definitely think that this image represents the transition from spring to summer - probably least documented season change.

I think @Igor_Doncov bings up an interesting point about composition. The ping pong to me has some parallel with dissonance in music.

I also think this provides a good example of how contrast can contribute to the composition. As an experiment and I’m not suggesting that this improves the image but its interesting how reducing the contrast on one tree breaks the tonal relationship and reduces the ring pong effect.

Here’s the same image with the contrast reduced in the yellow tree and it changes the way the eye moves. Perhaps breaking the relationship provides more harmony?

Thanks Nathan, your bring up some very interesting observations. Your comment about contrast affecting composition is very thought provoking. In your rework, the change in the yellow tree significantly affects it’s relationship to the green tree. With the green tree now so dominant, it’s almost like a different image. While I prefer the relationship between the trees as shown in my original post, your idea here is an important takeaway to keep in mind.

I was never into music that much, but searched and found this definition of dissonance.

“Harmony is a noun that means simultaneous sounds. Consonant and dissonant are adjectives that describe harmony, think of dissonance as “tension” and consonance as “stability/release.”.”

Clearly, the original “ping pong” image is dissonant, with tension between the two trees. Your rework creates a more consonant harmony, the image feels more “stable” with the green tree dominant. Both can work, and both have harmony (just different types). Since my original concept of this image was to illustrate the changing seasons, I think the dissonant version is more effective at doing that, but your version works too by telling a slightly different story.

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