When I was in Canada, I visited the fairy tree on multiple occasions. It’s almost certainly the most popular subject in the area. It was the first stop on our tour but I visited alone again later and finally the group went once more. In total, there were 3 outings to the Fairy Tree which gave me a few different atmospheres with which to work.
On our initial visit, there wasn’t much going on. I was struggling to find a good spot to set up, I was realizing that my Tamron 70-300 isn’t terribly sharp wide open and I was having a hard time getting the tree to stand out.
After some time, I was able to come up with a composition that was better – at least something that was able to make the tree stand out a bit. The tree, itself, feels like it’s on the border of fiction so I felt like brightening up the greens on the tree was within reason.
When I revisited on my own the next day, it was beginning to rain. I tried some longer exposures which really smoothed out the water and made the reflections of the surrounding forest smear away. I like this photo quite a lot because of the near mirror image. The reflection of the tree on the water makes the mirror but because you can also see part of the log under the water, it obviously doesn’t reflect above the water – breaking the mirror.
The next visit had a more mysterious feel to the scene thanks to the fog that hovered just above the water. This made for some interesting shots and also greatly helped separate the tree from the background. The above photo is a similar angle to the first photo in this post but the fog helps fade the trees in the background.
By desaturating the water but keeping the fairy tree bright with color, the photo takes on more of an eerie feel. The sticks floating in the water make me think of the trash compactor scene from Star Wars where they encounter a giant snake-like creature. There is actually a beaver in this photo, too!
And lastly, the photo I almost love. I took a step back once the fog started to lift and noticed that the reflection on the water seemed to highlight the tree a bit. I do like the contrast of the colors in this photo but I’m disappointed to not have a bit more to work with on the bottom. I could try some generative AI to see what else can be added but the only software I know that can do that is Photoshop and I have pretty much sworn off adobe products in the near future (bad recent experience with the software and the company). Nonetheless this photo may find a home on a wall in our house.