It was the year when I visited the Eastern Sierra mountains in California for the first time.
That year I visited the Sequoia National Park in the Western Sierra first. I was overwhelmed with the size of the giant sequoias, the largest trees in the world. I thought I knew what to expect because I read a lot about giant trees since I was in school. But, in reality, the enormity of the sequoias was remarkable.
The next stop of my southwest trip was Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, the habitat of the oldest trees in the world. I expected to get overwhelmed again, now by the oldest trees anticipating to see a new type of giants.
But I was wrong. The oldest trees in the world did not look imposing or mighty. They looked like dead dwarfs without any bark around their trunks.
And yet, that was the forest full of trees ages between 3000 and 5000 years old.
The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest is located at 11,000 feet(3,400m) above sea level, on the north side of the mountains where it is always cold. And the area receives almost zero precipitation around the year. Because of that, the Bristlecone Pine trees developed such a body density that bacteria can not penetrate it. It is tough for any tree to survive in such a hostile environment, but at the same time, it extends their lifespan by a few thousand years. Incredible.
I am not sure about the age of the trees I captured in the featured photo, but they are old and still alive.
In the background, you can see the Sierra Nevada Mountains where Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Yosemite National Parks are located.
Shooting
The challenge with the shooting was cold weather, and at the end of May, you usually do not carry with your winter clothes.
I also struggled with the particulate shot because it was pretty steep around the trees, and I had a problem leveling the tripod. In the end, I did not manage to level it correctly, and I had to do perspective correction in Lightroom.
- Camera: Sony a6000
- Lens: Sony 16-70mm f/4
- Focal Length: 20mm (30mm full-frame equivalent)
- Shooting Mode: Aperture Priority (A)
- ISO: 100
- Aperture: F9
- Shutter Speed: 1/60s
- Tripod: FEISOL Tournament CT-3442
Editing & Processing
It was a single RAW processing workflow.
Lightroom (80%)
I started processing by adjusting perspective using the Transform tools in the Develop Module of Lightroom.
Next, I use the Crop Overlay tool to маке composition a bit tighter..
To complete the Lightroom editing, I
The Lightroom Preset Editing Formula: Napa (2, 9, 13, 20, 32)
Photoshop (20%)
In Photoshop, I used the Spot Removal tool to clean up the image.
And finally, I used the Topz DeNoise plugin to reduce digital noise. That was the first time I used the latest version of DeNoise AI after upgrading from DeNoise 6. The newest version works differently compared to the old version. It does not only reduce the noise but sharpens the image as well.
After I am comfortable with the new version, I will update my review of Topaz plugins.
