Caption:

PoTM 2011 Jan: The Lone Tree, Burbage Moor

 

Commentary:

 

I, and many photogs, find it very hard to pass a lone tree without taking a shot (or ten) - especially if it’s set against a distant horizon, a good sky and it’s in an interesting setting. My ‘local’ lone tree is rather convenient, just off Ringinglow Road on Burbage Moor less than five miles from Sheffield. I must have more than a hundred images of that one tree alone!

 

The obvious question is “so what makes it so irresistible?” It’s a tough question to answer too but I reckon it’s about the peace and solitude – that and the wide open spaces that we all crave for that the lone tree represents. The typical ‘lone tree’ that springs to mind would be perched high on the top of a rolling green hillside against a deep blue sky. My local lone tree isn’t like that at all; it’s a gnarled and wind-swept specimen set amidst a bleak heather moor.

 

The image below was captured one late January day; the approaching dusk making the clouds overhead really stand out and thereby adding to the mood. The clouds were such an integral part if this image that it ‘had’ to be a landscape shot. I crouched low shooting just above the moor locking focus on the tree with a mid-range aperture so that there was a good depth of field beyond the initial out-off-focus foreground. This particular tree isn’t the biggest and it’s only just possible to get the first tree branch above the horizon – I figure that’s a ‘must have’ by the way. I’ve cropped the frame to that the horizon and the upper cloud line was (roughly) on opposing third lines and positioned the tree slightly closer to the frame edge than a third point to add emphasis to the open moor.

 

Like I say, I must have a hundred shots of this tree – I reckon I’ll be getting more though…

 

Capture Notes:

Nikon D300, 28 - 70 mm AFS f2.8 @ 70mm, 1/320 secs @ f6.3, EV=-0.7, ISO 400, matrix metering in aperture priority.

 

Keywords:

Lone tree, Burbage Moor, storm clouds