Melaleuca embedded in lake side rock, Wallaga Lake National Park, NSW Australia
As I waited for the Sun to set, I took a stroll along the Lake shore, discovering numerous photographic opportunities. When I came across this one It didn't immediately stand out and I kept walking, on my way back though, looking from a different angle, it suddenly clicked. Cutting off the upper half of this Melaleuca the image became clear. The lake bedrock with its quartz veins, one in particular leading to and transforming into root. It looked like the tree was metamophosizing. The unasked question is it morphing from rock to tree or tree to rock. The problem, being blue sky all had a blue tint, but it wasnt the right light, but then is there ever such a thing? Three days I waited for clouds and rain to saturate the rock but to no avail. This was the last aftenoon and I had a choice, either make the image now or miss the opportunity. Faced with such a decision I just got on with it, using the ground glass so I could concentrate on the shapes and pattern. I knew the sensor didnt have the depth of field to ensure sharpness throughout so decided to use a focus stacking method. Working from near to far with minor adjustments in focus at f11 using the same exposure. Half an hour and 16 images later the process was complete, all that was remained was post processing. So was it the right light? For me at the time, absolutely. Alpa STC, Schneider 47mm, Leaf 75s, no filtration, tripod, 16 frames at stacked focus merged together.
Size: 4814px × 6473px
Photo credit: © Matt Smith / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: australia, bedrock, detail, embedded, erosion, geology, growing, lake, lines, metamorphosis, national, nsw, park, quartz, rock, root, roots, themes, tree, vein, wallaga
