I have actually attempted this shot several times over the past few years. I see it every time I go to Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge early in the morning…or at least some variation of it. This line of trees which are slowly slipping with the land under them, further down the steep cutting of the Merriland river. They are well rooted and the slant is all the landslide has achieved so far. But of course, it is as much about the light as the slant…the way the light, strikes down just here and illuminates the trunks, bring out both line (modeling) and the contrasting textures of the bark. I shot this twice, but this tighter crop using more of the zoom works better for me…and this is the best of my many tries over the years. I think that is a matter of the particular character of the early spring, early morning light of this particular day.

Canon SX20IS at 70mm equivalent field of view, f3.5 @ 1/100th @ ISO 160. Program Mode.

Processed for intensity and clarity in Lightroom, with special attention to the balance of highlight and shadow and a bit of color adjustment.

And, since someone else is probably already thinking it, this is an image that might work well in Black and White. So, with some judicious conversion in Lightroom, this is my attempt at the B&W version. I was surprised by the different B&W effects I could produce by altering the color temperature of the original.