Trying to see the (dead) wood for the trees

​We've all been there. You find yourself in a wonderful location, with all the components in front of you to make a terrific photograph; and yet no matter how hard you try, you can't quite find a way to combine those components into the 'perfect' composition. What do you do? Accept that it isn't quite there and give up? Accept a compromise...? I'm pretty bloody minded and don't give up easily and now, some eight months later after one such morning in Namibia, I find myself with a composition that may not be perfect but it is one that I'm happy with.

I had wanted to visit Sossusvlei and Deadvlei ever since we'd spent a whirlwind week touring some of the northern part of Namibia 15 years earlier. At the time we didn't have the time or money to visit Sossusvlei but it was always in my mind to go back. Since that time the dunes and dead Camelthorns have become very popular locations with photographers. Did this put me off? No not at all. Although I did make a point of avoiding any photographs of the area for the months before our visit - just to make sure I arrived there with as few preconceptions as possible. Our visit was in mid November - a relatively quiet time for photographers in Namibia. We ended up visiting Deadvlei on three occasions - twice in the evening and once at dawn. I have to say it is the most magical location - we were lucky to have the place almost entirely to ourselves on each visit and were able to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the slightly eerie silence of this pan, littered with dead (and very beautiful) Acacia trees. I knew very quickly that I wanted to find clean, calm compositions to reflect my feelings about the place and, for the most part, this was my focus. There are a number of images in my Namibia gallery that I hope convey that sense of calm and that reveal the lovely textures of the wood - typically, they are what I would term fairly gentle but graphic compositions. The image above is slightly different. I'd spotted this particular tree on our first visit (at sunset) and was immediately attracted to the snaking root and pleasing shape of the Acacia trees. The angle of light was not right, however, and so I resolved to leave this one for our dawn visit. We arrived at the pan in near darkness and I first set about revisiting a group of trees I'd photographed the previous evening, as my husband set off to walk up one of the dunes for sunrise. Moments later I was somewhat startled to hear the sound of hooves echoing in the pan - eventually spotting a couple of Oryx - equally startled to find their space had been invaded by a couple of humans. It was a magical few moments, watching them set off round the edge of the pan, hearing the gentle clatter of their hooves on the baked mud. Some minutes later, I set about finding a composition of the tree with the root. The sky was now tinged with pinks and blues and everything seemed perfect. All my previous compositions had included trees set against the backdrop of taller dunes, ensuring the branches did not breach the skyline. On the whole this was my preference, but I knew this was not an option for this image and also felt that the Camelthorn branches could be set off nicely against the gentle sky. I was also very keen to avoid the trees in the middle distance overlapping with my main subject - however, this proved impossible so I opted for the very deliberate placement of a distant tree nestled in the V-shape of the near branches. An eagle-eyed photographer spotted this when I posted the image to twitter last week - understandably, he would have preferred it not to be there - I'll admit it is a compromise, but I feel it's an acceptable one and it seemed the best solution at the time. I was also reasonably happy with the alignment of all the other trees - they were in reasonably clean groupings and the main tree was sitting comfortably against the dunes.I knew I would be cropping this image and had in mind a 5:4 ratio but, probably because I was a little uncertain about the balance of this image, I opted not to crop in camera but to capture the full frame 3:2 RAW file, knowing I could refine the crop lines later when post processing. Later that day I made an initial attempt at processing the file on my laptop. I wasn't really happy with the 5:4 crop but decided to leave it for a while. Some weeks later, back in the UK, I tried again and eventually settled on a square crop - this was definitely better but I still wasn't really happy and this image did not make it onto my website - you can see the original file and crops below.

Like most photographers, I have a constant backlog of images to process. Often I will work on a few images just after a trip - partly because things are still fresh in my mind and it gives me a reference point, but also because I'm impatient and long to see what I've got. I will then come back several months later (sometimes more) and look at things with fresh eyes, also more objective eyes! I'm now working through all of my Namibia images, keep to submit them to stock libraries and to work through the backlog. Last week, I found myself looking at this image again - there was so much about it I liked but I felt the balance just wasn't quite right. It was necessarily a more complex image than most of my Deadvlei photographs but I felt there was enough order amongst the chaos of dead trees for the image to work. So I thought I'd put it out to twitter and see what turned up from my fellow twitterers... ;) I deliberately gave no hint as to what I thought - just asked for honest comments. I was happy to find that all the comments were positive but, even happier that a few photographers were prepared to admit to some of the same reservations I had. Sometimes this is just what we need - it can be hard to be entirely objective about your own work and to take that step back. Even eight months on, I could still picture myself at the scene and recall the thoughts I went through when working on the composition. I wanted to play on the angle of the branch on the right leading down into the trunk of the image, with the line continuing along the root and out of the frame - and you can see this in the 5:4 crop. However, the lower half of the image lacked dynamism, there was not enough definition in the cracks of the pan and not enough drawing you into the scene - hence my move to a square crop. Still not quite right, though. This square crop (outlined in black above) was the one I posted on twitter and, after taking on board the comments I received, I finally found a slightly tighter crop, with a little less foreground - I had been concerned about the truncation of the root being a little abrupt with this new crop but I think it now echoes the relatively tight crop of the branches above and the balance is far better. Suddenly it worked! It is perfect? No, but then how often is real life perfect? Am I now happy with it? Yes, and enough so to add the image to my gallery. Many thanks to all those who gave feedback!