Stills

A very strong feeling of winter in the Midwest, and another case where the sepia tone works very well to get the mood across. The leafless trees and grass stalks are quite beautiful as you've presented them here.
 

That looks about right for the Midwest in February. I'm reminded of a book of Harry Callahan's photographs that I've been looking over. This bears a strong resemblance to some of his work.

The texture in those grasses is so delicate looking. How does this print?
 

Curiosity; why didn't you include the tops of the trees?

I would not have taken this without including the tops and it was only on sitting down to write that I realised they were not there; I was 'happy' until I noticed. I have to turn off my desire in order to see the image as you intended.

The contrast of the snowy foreground with the starkness of the trees is the feature that lifts this image for me.
 

The contrats fore and back are very complimentary but like rex I'm curious as to your chosen lopping of the central trees. These add some height to a fairly horizontal photograph and the missing tops confine this shot even more. Having said that the overall effect is well balanced.
 

Thanks for your great feedback!

Regarding the cropping, I initally made a number of exposures with the tree tops included. But the images appeared too static (even with the blowing wind) and seemed to detract from what I wanted to suggest. Thus I trugged into the snow a little deeper to get this cropped image.

The winter foreground grasses were very light and I wanted to keep them that way, but the blowing wind has most of them blurred. Using the new CS3 B&W adjustment layer has helped improve this image for me.

Due to the wind and long exposure, there are not very many sharply defined edges in this image and I feel it really suggests Winter as well as trees & weeds.

I really like this landscape image a LOT. As to Matt, this image prints beautifully and let me know if you are interested in a print exchange?
 

Opps, I forgot to add to Matt's comment about this looking like Harry Callahan"s work. That is a great complement and I appreciate it very much. I like Callahan's work a lot and have a number of his books. So he must have an influence, but I can honestly say that I was not thinking of him and his work while I made this image. Must be one of those latent memory things! But again, thank you.
 

Ever since the comments made about the tops of the trees in this were made, I have been wondering about that. I have come to the conclusion that subsequent viewing has not altered the lack of concern I felt in my initial views. It's a valid composition: I almost find it hard to imagine the scene with the tops of the trees included.
 

I can imagine taking this with the tree tops in and then reviewing the result and moving in closer as you did.

That sort of framing decision has been of concern to me recently. I often find that my initial frame is far too static because I've composed for perfect boundaries and not for the subject matter. Moving from an SLR+zoom, with the infinite temptation to change the frame, to a rangefinder+prime, with its roughly right approach, has helped me a lot.