A nice composition, Nick. It has a great forest floor feel to it, which is good since it is a forest floor. My only suggestions would be to get rid of the bluish cast and low contrast and maybe sharpen it up a bit. It's certainly worth working on. Below is my rough solution. Steve
Thank you very much for the detailed comments, Hugo. Your thoughts would indeed enhance the picture in the direction of making the tree the protagonist.
My intention here was to demonstrate how little space can still support life. Showing the small plants and the moos as a microscopic garden is in my mind like enhancing the life of the inhabitants of that land at the roots of the tree.
In other words, you look at the tree, while I tried to take a look at all those tiny things that themselves look at the tree.
But your idea is very good. I'll try it as soon as possible and also try to combine both ideas - somehow.
A very interesting subject, and well taken. I really like the idea behind it, and I think you've captured a very suitable tree to illustrate it...:) A pity the image quality suffers a bit from the scanning, though.
As to the composition, I feel the tree and it's shadow take up a relatively small portion of the image. As the shadow is as important to the theme as the tree itself, I think if you had placed the tree trunk on the right of the image, letting the shadow run all the way across to the left, the impact of this photo would've been slightly enhanced, and I also think it would benefit the composition.
On the other hand, it would reduce the effect of the little off-spring growing up between the roots, which adds a very interesting element, but is, IMO, only a secundary subject.
Either way, I think the centered placement of the tree is more of a distraction, making the scene look more static than necessary...
A good shot, well exposed, and a very interesting idea.
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