On September 12, 2020, I started as a participant in the mentorship program of Nature Photography by famous Dutch photographer Bart Siebelink. I wrote about this for the first time in an earlier blogpost, see this LINK.
For today I will discuss one other (last) photograph that I created on the first day of mentorship:
Process: a beautiful protruding knot with clear contours gave me the image of a totem animal, the (land) tortoise (the head of the beast).
Idea: various cultures, especially the Indians, have great respect for nature and the wisdom associated with it. I soon saw this tortoise, and because it is also a land animal, I chose to clearly show the woods in the background (high aperture number F25). The right corner remained too bare for a balanced image, so I held up fresh tree leaves in the right corner. I took the photograph slightly tilted from below, emphasizing the animal's wisdom.
Digital editing: only slight editing in PS Elements (saturation/contrast/dust removal).
What do I think of it? The photo is only partly successful. The leaves in the lower right corner may be a bit "fake", but sometimes you have to work with what you have right on the spot. My totem animal is a tortoise, so that's a great find!
