When I am out with my camera and see something that intrigues me in some way, I may make a photograph without knowing exactly what it is about the scene that attracts me. That was the situation this past spring when I took a walk from my house and came upon some trees by a marsh.

The original color image that the digital camera captured seemed okay, but it didn’t evoke any special feeling in me. But once I converted it to a monochrome image and de-emphasized the textures and details, I saw how the tree branches, still leafless, seemed to stretch and bend to fill the frame, and how their tips made a filigree pattern that filled the sky.