The Crow and the Conifer

Kilmacurragh has a way of feeling ancient, especially when the weather closes in. The rain wasn't the polite, misty kind today; it was persistent and soaked everything in a deep, melancholic blue. I almost kept the phone in my pocket, but the silhouette of this giant conifer against the rolling clouds was too striking to ignore. It doesn’t look like it, but behind it, the sun was trying to break through and this made the tree look even more impressive.

Capturing the scale was the main challenge. Without a reference point, big trees just look like... trees. I waited for a gap in the clouds to backlight the branches, and luck was on my side when a crow darted across the frame. That single bird gives the viewer a sense of the size of the tree. In the edit, I leaned into the cold tones, with a touch of the retrolux effect, desaturating the greens to match the cold I felt while standing there.