Shutter-life|Adaptive photography and more, by Henrik Johansson

This tree is special to me. Last year, it was the subject for what I think was my first real quality photo. The tree is located in Morgan Territory Regional Preserve, north of Livermore, California. Instead of using the short route, I first biked to the top of Mt. Diablo. I then continued down and around the mountain before starting the climb back through Morgan Territory. As I approached the highest point, I suddenly fund myself inside the clouds. Everything became dull and mute. At the top, just before leaving the park, I saw this lone tree standing majestically, surrounded by the mist.

This year, I made it to the tree three times. The shot above is from my first visit in April. I had biked through the hills of the park (ok, I pushed my bike since the trails always went straight up the extremely steep hills). Before biking home, I naturally stopped for some shots of the tree. The light was ok for the time of day, but far from great. Because of this, I decided to try out some presets i Lightroom. The preset that I liked best is called Vergilbt/Gilted and it creates a golden effect. You can download it for free at Inside Lightroom. I also made the photo a bit lighter and removed some branches from the ground.
The photo turned out to be my most popular yet on Flickr, with a rank pending between 7 and 25 on Explore.