"Photography attempts to show us a world different from the one we directly observe, a world that bears an uncanny resemblance to the one held in the mind's eye of our memory"

Galen Rowell - Inner Game of Outdoor Photography
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This is a photo that's been kicking around on my hard-drive for a while now. I wasn't sure whether to submit it or not, but *Pete-B insisted that I do...so if you don't like it, blame him

Every time I've driven my car out to the Guincho, on the west coast of Portugal to shoot waterscapes, I've parked next to this stand of trees.
It's windy there, most of the trees lean over from the persistant battering they take from the coastal winds, and I've often thought that this isolated couple of pine trees on the edge of the dunes would make a nice shot.

I've attempted to photograph them a number of times, but always been frustrated by the light not being right or not being able to seperate them out from the grassy background.
This is one of the attempts I'm happiest with, taken around 45 minutes before the sunset, the side light giving the trunk and branches contrast and texture.

I used a polarizing filter to saturate the colours of the top branches and the sky, making the contrast between them higher.
The shutter speed wasn't fast enough to completely "freeze" the tree against the wind, so the very outer edges of the branches are a little blurred.

Shot in Guincho, Portugal
Nikon D80 | Sigma 10-20 | Hoya Pro 1 polarizing filter
Manfrotto 190XProB w/ 322RC2 ballhead
1/30 | f9 | 13mm
Processed from RAW in Apple Aperture. B&W conversion, contrast, shadows and sharpening.