Joel Leske, Waves of the forest (PLACES 2022)

My entires to this competition are my first attempts at presenting work in mono. I have learnt a great deal and have enjoyed experimenting with this technique. By far the most enjoyable part of this process has been realising that without colour, your imagination can take you to see what it wants, rather than what the image is. In this image, you can see rushing water with sunlight reflecting in it. Or perhaps distant mountain ranges, captured from above. However when you rotate the image 90 degrees, it becomes more apparent what the image is - a close up of bark on a tree. This is a macro, focussed stacked image of an endangered White Cypress Pine. I love the texture of this bark and how the white moss creates the impression of reflecting sun light. Every time I look at this image, I notice something new and different, which makes it one of my favourite shots.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.