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So, the other day, I posted the above photo without a title, soliciting captions. Almost two dozen suggestions later (all of which were kept hidden until after I posted this followup, so as not to influence subsequent suggestions) and the overwhelming theme is “layers” and “strata”.
Of course, the wonderful banding of different colors and textures is what prompted me to take the photo in the first place. It took it from my balcony, looking across the little stream next to our place to the path on the other side. I've lived here for four years and never noticed it in this way before.
After I did notice it and grabbed the camera, I became more struck by the difference of the one line to the rest, the leaves accumulated on the ledge that rises from left to right. This struck me as a connection between the layers above and below, so I thought about captions such as “Bridging the Gap” and such. But nothing I thought of really captured what I wanted, so I asked a friend, William Maton, via Yahoo Messenger what caption he'd put on it....
His response, “Sea, Forest, and Mountains” was on a whole different level than what I was thinking. Wondering whether anyone else would have a completely different direction, I posted the photo sans caption or explanation. I'm gratified at the response, and it was fun. Thanks for playing. 🙂
I finally went with “Going Up” because in the end I saw the line of leaves rising more than I saw it bridging, though those looking at the photo from right to left might not quite see it that way.
As a bonus, I got my desktop-background image machinery working again – I installed Photoshop on my new machine – so the copy above has links to desktop-background sizes.
I have a version with an extra layer, but it struck me better in a landscape orientation that emphasized the banding. But FWIW, here's the portrait mode...
I also toyed with a different theme that required a bit of timing to get right....
Nikon D700 + Zeiss 100mm f/2 — 1/200 sec, f/16, ISO 2200 — full exif
( So, What Caption for This One? )
It's somewhat surprising how such a small thing — a touch of the human element — can change a picture so much. I was actually hoping for more impact, but I still like the result. It sort of along the same lines as this shot from “Artsy Fartsy in Kyoto at f/1.2”.
And for good measure, here's a shot taken at about the same time that I sorta' like, even though nothing is in focus...
(Those not familiar with “Bokeh” might find the description on “Funky Spectral Highlights in My Bokeh” helpful.)