Laying Eggs in a Nest

Laying Eggs in a Nest

Today I thought we could look at an image I created, Laying Eggs in a Nest. Go through the thought processes behind the creation.

Laying Eggs in a Nest

It has been a while since I did one of these images, but I did this one the other day and thought it would make a great photo for a post. In the past I’ve done these and always say I will do more, then I get distracted. However, I am going to make more of an effort in the future to do more. Perhaps I need to challenge myself to do one of these a week.

Shall we start?

Original Image

The following image was taken last year, apparently. I don’t remember going last year, but you know, CRAFTs* disease, who knows. When we got to the redwood forest near Warburton we found a heap of large nests on the ground. Well, nest like things, but definitely manmade. Nothing in Australia is big enough to build nests like it.

A local artist, I think it was, built them, but they were originally tied up in the trees. The rangers then came along and cut them down. They were left on the ground. When you walked around you would find quite a few of them. I believe they might still be there.

Laying Eggs in a Nest

This is one of the images I took. They are quite amazing.

Before I gave up writing for Digital Photography School I was going to do an article on processing. Actually it was more like a tutorial. One of the things I was going to write about was how to make the trees look like they were going up.

Anyway, I decided in the end that I didn’t want to do it and I stopped writing for them for the time being. I had got this image out to do the tutorial and it just sat in my 2019 folder.

Then I had an idea.

Trees Going Up

Last week I thought, why not just do it. I needed a photo for Instagram, so why not this.

I opened up the image and started working on it. I like the effect. It looks incredible to see the trees going heavenward.

After doing it, I ended up with this.

Laying Eggs in a NestNormally I would just finish it with that, but as I looked at it, I thought it needs something.

I went off to make a coffee and to think about what I could put into the nest.

Laying Eggs

The nest was nice, but empty. They can be good that way, but I wanted to challenge myself. There had to be something I could put inside it.

Obviously eggs were the obvious choice. I had some in the fridge, I could take photos of them and put them in it. Then I thought about what else I had and decided that the boulders from Moeraki, in New Zealand, would be perfect.

The first time I visited them, it was later in the day and the sky was overcast. However, the tide was out, so I had lots of photos of the rocks with no water and no sun. That made them perfect for what I wanted.

After going through the photos I had and picking the ones I wanted to use the task was to put them into the image. That isn’t always as easy as it sounds. You want them to look realistic and that was perhaps the hardest part. It was also the part that I spent most of my time on. So many things to consider, light and shadow etc.

This was the final image.

Laying Eggs in a Nest

I’m so proud of myself for this one. Especially as this is the direction I want to start working towards. For a long time, I’ve wanted to delve more into compositing and it seems the time is right now. I’ve played with it a bit in the past, but now I want to do a lot more.

Possible Tutorial

I’m wondering if you would like a tutorial on how to make the trees look like they are going up. Let me know and I will do it for next week.

It won’t be the whole thing, here, but how to make the trees look as they do in the second image.

If I don’t get enough people saying yes, I won’t worry about it. Up to you.

*CRAFTs – Can’t Remember A F***ing Thing

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37 Comments

    1. It won’t be the whole image for the tutorial, more how to make the trees look like they do. I hope you will still want it.

  1. That looks sensational! I would love to learn how to get that effect – there was another photo on the TPM page yesterday and that looks so good as well and I wondered how that was done. The Moeraki boulders look fantastic.

  2. Love your work and I’d be interested in the tutorial you mentioned stretching the trees. I’ve done it with slow shutter speed moving camera up.

    1. Yeah, I’ve done it that way too, but I like doing on the computer as well. Will have to work on the tutorial, thank you Sara.

  3. Leanne–I like this. They look like dinosaur eggs to me, with the one on the left getting ready to crack open!

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