I've never seen this picture of yours. The colors are just stunning! I love all the different things going on in the sap. How did you get the tree to not show?

Thanks for the comment, Falchloin. To get the tree to not show, I actually had to get up at sunrise, right as the sun was shining STRAIGHT into the sap. What I did was I positioned the camera so that the sun, in the picture, is behind the tree branch so it's not shining into the picture but still at the sap. Behind, far behind in the neighbour's yard, is a row of trees that were of course in shadow since the whole situation is backlit. Low and behold, if I exposed the photo so that I got as much detail in the sap as possible, the tree branch and the background were absolutely black, gone, too dark to register in the image. The sun is a very powerful light source!!!

-Matt-

Very cool! Thanks.

Dear god, this is amazing it looks SOOO photoshoped! Great job on this where was the sun comparative to you? Whatever, excellent shot, you're an early morning person aren't you....I can never seem to get up in time for the sunrises....

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This actually WAS right around sunrise, lol. The sun was just shining into the sap so strongly and there was a big thick hedge of pines behind, so it was in dark shadow. I photoshopped it a tad to make it look a bit more "crisp", but even in the original file, the background and the tree branch above were absolutely black. Sunrises are the way to go, if you think about it. Photography is ALL about capturing the light, and sunrise is the best light. People usually just think that sunset is just as good, but actually there's a huge difference between the two, because at sunset the earth has been warmed up all day by the sun, and everything is relatively the same temperature, but at sunrise, it's been cold all night so when the sun comes up there's a magical change. You'll see, when I post some Yosemite sunrise photos, as soon as I get my film processed, you'll see the magic. Take care!

-Matt-

Ya, I think I may try to get up for some more sunrises, although i never really have been a morning person what you say really makes sense! Ya, photoshop-when used properly- can really enhance an image, I used it for 3 months, just doing my own thing with it, signatures and such and with good comments you can learn so much....
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that is a manip of one of my own shots from marin to the bay area, the original was out of focus as well as over exposed, but a little tidying up in ps and its awesome!

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Coming from PS 7.0 for a year or so now, I'm no stranger to 10-20 layer photos hitting 300 megs and whatnot. I try not to overdo it as far as "manipulation" goes, but I'm definitely a perfectionist when it comes to getting images just right. "Selective Color" and the channel mixer are my favorite tools, by far. And usually I burn and dodge more than I use curves, since I came from traditional darkroom B&W photography. But when CS2 gets here, I'm eager to get my hands on the highlight / shadow tools, and try out the HDR feature. HDR seems to be made for me, I've dreamed about a tool that would do this for me...