Conceptual Photography

[yellow]

I have no idea how this will come out, and I'm sure it's been done to death..

On my drive to and from home/work, there's a GINORMOUS tree in the middle of the median on a rural highway. I mean it's just huge, I'm 6'6" and it would take at least 3 or 4 of me to reach all the way around it. Err.. and this is East Coast, so no redwood refs, please.

For whatever reason, I decided that I was going to take a picture of this tree once a week at the same time (Sunday morning at 10AM) from the same position. The plan, assuming it comes out 1) looking good and 2) being relatively interesting, is to stitch them all together in a much larger photo/layout as a comparison of time/nature/weather/seasons. Unfortunatly, this is a point-and-click digicamera (Canon Powershot D500 or something), so no great quality.

Why? I have no idea. It's just an idea that popped into my head. Probably because I am desperate for snow (and snow in trees, and it's a HUGE tree) and it's already February and none in sight/none has fallen.

As I said, I'm sure this has been done before. Can someone hopefully link to simiar pictures? Have advice on layout? Techniques?

 

[rjphoto]

sounds fun.

T start get a tripod and a can of spray paint.

Find a safe place on the shoulder of the road to shoot from and mark where you put the tripod for the first shot with the spray paint. (Keep the paint handy to freshen up the markers when you come back over the next few months.)

Remember your zoom settings and tripod height/tilt for your return shots and have fun.

Post the results...

 

[yellow]

Ah.. good idea! Thanks!

 

[emw]

T start get a tripod and a can of spray paint.

Ah, much better idea. I was going to say get a tent and a sleeping bag.

I like the idea, if it works out. It's a lot of effort to do it that way, and I imagine there will be weeks that go by that show no appreciable changes in the tree. Have you considered lengthening the time between shots to something more like 2 or 3 weeks? In the spring and fall maybe more frequently, but I doubt it will change much in the summer months.

 

[yellow]

I did think about that, but it's only about 15 minutes drive from my house, so I can grab some coffee and take a nice leisurely drive on some scenic routes down to it. I don't mind doing it weekly. Plus, I figured I could drop any non-changes in the post production. But even if there's no change, it doesn't really matter. Unless I have like 20% of the photos being more or less exactly the same.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

post a pick of the thing when you get a chance -

I've been doing the same sort of thing with a field down the road from my house - I need to get some more winter and spring shots and I'll have decent set of seasonal images. I also have been hoping to get some different clouds/lighting as well.

D

 

[rjphoto]

think about the Frames per second...

If he shoots 1 usable frame a week for 1 year that gives him 52 frames. Less than 2 seconds of video at 30 frames per second...slow that down to 15 frames per second and you are still under 4 seconds for the final show.

That's a lot of work for a short show. Kind of like doing clay-mation...

 

[emw]

I don't think he's looking to make a movie - just a photo layout of the images. He may only have 10 or 12 images, maybe 20 or so. A collage of seasons, so to speak.

I think it will look cool if the pictures come out nice.

 

[rjphoto]

A time lapse video covering the whole year would be so cool...IMHO.

 

[yellow]

Here's a link (finally) to what the tree looks like. Notice the car on the left has almost reached the tree's shadow, so you can get some concept of just how large the tree is.



This one is from last week, and the ends of the braches are getting "fuzzy" as it's 'fixin' to sprout some leaves. Yay, spring!

 

[pdpfilms]

Here's a link (finally) to what the tree looks like. Notice the car on the left has almost reached the tree's shadow, so you can get some concept of just how large the tree is.



This one is from last week, and the ends of the braches are getting "fuzzy" as it's 'fixin' to sprout some leaves. Yay, spring!

I'd suggest maybe framing it a little to the photographer's right... So it's centered in that break in the background trees.

 

[Sdashiki]

I'd suggest maybe framing it a little to the photographer's right... So it's centered in that break in the background trees.

id love to see the tree almost at the bottom of the frame with a wide sky overhead.

but that would convey something different than what you want.

it just being (the horizon line) in the midline, is kinda boring.

 

[yellow]

Well, that's a cropped version of the original.

Unfortunately, from where I take the picture (it's s spot easy to get to and always be in more or less the same spot), means that it's from that angle always. Not sure I can frame it between the trees and be accurate week in, week out. But I'll test it next Sunday.

 

[Abstract]

So you can't move a bit to the left so that the big tree sits between all the small trees at the back?

And yes, spraypaint and a tripod. Spraypaint the 3 points on the ground where the tripod's legs touch the ground.

Oh, and if you can, zoom out a bit. I think it would be kinda cool to see a bit more of the sky like someone mentioned, or at least see the surrounding road.

One more thing. I'm not a Photoshop expert, but how easy or difficult would it be to take all the images, make the fainter, and just overlap them or blend them or something to that effect?

 

[yellow]

1) No, and not be sure I'm in the same(ish) spot every time.

2) Can't it's grass to the left and the right. Anything I sprayed would disappear, so a tripod and marked points are moot.

Remember, this tree is in the median of a 4 lane highway. There are cars whizzing by at 65 miles per hour, so this is not really a place I want to be for too long.

3) That IS zoomed out. And I'm at least 100 feet from the tree. If I move further back I get too much of the highway and the electrical lines and other unsavory things.

EDIT: My eventual hope is to remove everything except the tree and it's immediate surroundings. And panel all those as the sseasons change. Unfortunately there's been ZERO snow this year, so it'll end up just being spring/summer/winter shots. Maybe some rain. Who knows. Boring, but I'm willig to wait it out and see what happens. It's not like I'm selling my house anytime soon and will continue to pass this tree 2x a day 6 days a week.

 

[liketom]

this has given me an idea !!!!


the leaves on the trees will start coming back very soon here in the UK

da da ding

 

[bruvone]

Maybe you could put a few small stakes in the ground if you wanted to move into the grass area. I'm not sure if thats a possibility or not (maybe they would get removed and ruin everything). But, just an idea I thought I'd throw in there. I think this is a great idea by the way!

 

[obeygiant]

 

[cgratti]

place 1 small steak in the ground and drop a plumb bob from the center of your tripod to the top of the steak, each time you go do the same thing on the steak and you will have the exact same shot, just remember to mark the heigth of your tripod each time so your at the same level as well as the same location. (I would set the tripod up the first time and just put a dab of paint on it to mark the heigth.)

For a more dramatic effect I would shoot a wider shot than you have posted, more width than heigth.