#00245, Saplings and The Castle

After a productive few days in the Budawang Ranges, fellow photographer David Houlder and I were making our way down the narrow trail at the base of The Castle when I saw this composition.

The way the delicate saplings contrasted in content, form and direction with the massive stone buttress of the mountain really caught my eye and demanded that some film be exposed.

I used an orange filter to darken the sky and was very careful to allow enough exposure compensation to keep detail in the shadows on the rock face.

One can obtain a similar affect with a polarizing filter but I do not find them very useful with black & white because they remove highlights (such as the bright parts of the leaves) and it's often these small specular highlights that help lift a photo.

Budawang NP, NSW

Technical: Tachihara 5x4 field camera, 90mm, 1s, f22
Keywords: saplings castle budawang ranges narrow trail buttress mountain sky shadows rock one black white leaves specular national park nsw budawangs large landscape mountains flora trees cliffs