The tree at Brighton

WHAT
This tree is located at the southern end of the Hornibrook bridge, Brighton. (About 40mins north of Brisbane). I took this photo at low tide and about 45 mins before sunset.

WHY
My husband took a beautiful photograph of this same tree about 4 years ago and I have always loved the image of the lone tree with the rocks in front of it. At the time, I'd just started getting into HDR and I wanted to try it out on this tree.

HOW
I set up my tripod in the soft sand directly in front of the tree at eyelevel. There were a few other mangrove type plants very close to my location, so I was careful to exclude them from my frame. I set the camera to 'bracket' and took three shots - one at each of the following exposures: -2, 0, +2.

If I had my time over with this shot, I probably would have moved the tripod and myself closer to the tree so that it fills the frame more.


POST PRODUCTION
Once home (and after cleaning the legs of my tripod!), I uploaded the images into Photomatix and tonemapped them to this result.

I like the colours of the sunset reflected in the water and the way the tree itself seems to glow.