In A Technical Focus, photographers offer technical and compositional insights into creating quality images that tell the story of a moment and place. 

I was inspired by the wonderful work that was submitted to the Slow Photography Movement in response to our Textures challenge. If you have not seen it, check it out here. For me, it was a reminder that I had a backlog of texture images to edit, including a series from an early morning last summer in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, in northern Minnesota. I’ve written before about the experience of visiting the BWCAW, and how it offers the distance from society that few places can achieve, even though it is fairly accessible (with permit in hand). I suggest you reference that article for a better understanding of this wonderful area because, in today’s piece, all you’re going to see is the tree bark!

So, inspired by the work in our quarterly gallery, I went to work on this series of photographs. Processing them reminded me that it was an exciting set of images to capture. In this article, I’ll share how I ended up shooting bark on this particular morning, and the equipment and technical approach I used.

I had gotten up early, hoping to photograph reflections in the perfectly still water of the small bay by our campsite. But, as usual, photography plans change. The light was not working with the reflection compositions I had envisioned. It eventually turned out that the small island I had hoped to photograph that morning was much better accentuated in late afternoon light. So, I put on my slow photographer hat and started walking around the shore, enjoying the morning, and keeping my eyes open for potential subjects. Then, just like that, the gradient of light from the low sun on the beautiful tree below caught my attention.

Capturing this gradient was slightly more technical than you might assume, when you factor in the curvature of the tree. The left and right areas in the image were significantly farther away from me than the center. This image was captured at 188mm, from just a few feet away. If I had used f/8, for optimal sharpness, I would have achieved only about an inch in depth of field. This would have meant making a lot of images to create a focus stack. At f/22, about 3” of focus could be achieved, but at the cost of significant lens diffraction, while still not eliminating the need for a stack. In this case, I used f/14 to split the difference.

I was now inspired to find more beautiful bark, and spent over an hour exploring endless trees, watching the light move across them, revealing beautiful textures and fleeting moments of intense color. Still in the early morning, washed in horizontal light, I captured the image below. It was a natural progression from the first one… After photographing a gradient of light on one tree, I wondered if I could include two in my composition using the same approach.

This was a bigger focus stack, as it had to cover the depth of two trees, and was shot at a longer focal length (244mm). Another technical consideration when shooting textures is the sheen and glare of surfaces, which can result of overexposed highlights and wash out textures and colors. For this reason, even though going into the BWCAW involves bringing a very limited amount of gear, I always bring my circular polarizer. Careful not to overdo it, I dial in a little bit of polarization, which helps to retain some richness in the color. 

As the sun rose, lighting conditions changed. The light became stronger and started being filtered by the trees. The soft gradients disappeared and many of the trees became harshly illuminated. However, where the light was filtered, small spotlights seemed to dance around the bark. It was interesting to observe how dramatically different the same area looked when it went from shade to light. The cover image and the image below show these conditions.

While it may not be evident at first sight, my favorite part of the image above is the moss growing on the dark (right) side. The first image in the article also had a little moss showing up on the dark side of the trunk, which I liked, and had me looking for more mossy trees. It feels like this photo is subtly revealing the reason behind this particular growth pattern. This makes an image more meaningful for me, when you discover layers of interest the closer that you look at it.

When shooting compositions with such contrast, it’s critical to keep an eye on the histogram and confirm that the highlights are being retained. The contrast on the raw files was significant, and it’s easy to accidentally expose for the darks, especially if they are the majority of the image, and blow out the bright areas that are critical to the image’s success.  

Later in the day, still fascinated by the trees, I captured one more bark image. This is the only one that was not a focus stack (it was a flatter surface, and some softness in the slightly darker recessed areas didn’t bother me here). I found this pattern in full shade, and thought it interesting enough by itself, even without any direct light highlighting its features. 

I am not sure why it took so long, and even a little external motivation, for me to get to these images. It may be that I still have not been able to conquer the tendency to prioritize images that are bolder, more dramatic, and may attract more reactions and engagement on social media. That’s a key lesson that our slow photography community is helping me to learn – but I still have work to do! I’m glad I did take the time to work through this series though, it was definitely fun to relive that morning now, in the middle of winter with snow flying outside the window. Enjoying the memory of warm sun on brightly colored bark was therapeutic and has me eagerly looking forward to my next summer walk among the trees.