Tag Archives: Tree

Baobab Tree at Lunchtime

One thing that I didn’t really get good shots of during our time on safari was the baobab trees.  There are many varieties of them and some of the most distinctive are in Madagascar, so they weren’t the ones we saw.  However, we did see a bunch of the local varieties and they were pretty cool looking.  The only one I got a good shot of was this one that someone pointed out to me behind the area where we had stopped for lunch.  It was quite a beast of a tree.  I did think about wandering closer to it but, unlike when at home, I was not so sure of the wisdom of wandering away from our guides.  There were some rather substantial predators out there somewhere.

Sawn Off Trunks

While walking through Washington Arboretum, we passed where a couple of trees had been taken down.  It looked like it had been done very recently because the remains of the trunk where it had been sawn off still looked very fresh.  The texture of the cross section caught my eye and I figured a view straight down with the light from the side picking out detail was the best angle.

Backlighting the Moss

The Pacific Northwest can definitely be damp and the amount of moss you see in sheltered areas is impressive.  What caught my eye on this occasion was that the moss was wrapped around the tree and the sun was directly behind the tree making the moss appear more like a halo around the tree than anything else.  It was quite a range of exposures, so I played around with the shots a little to get the effect I was after.

Strange Little Isolated Tree

Sometimes you just don’t have the right gear with you.  I had gone to Juanita Bay after work and was only carrying one camera with the 500mm on it.  Looking down in to the water to one side of me, I was quite taken by a stump in the water that had a new growth of a small tree coming from the top of it.  It was too far away to get a decent shot with the phone so the 500mm was the only option.  I took a sequence of shots to stitch together later on.  I quite like the separation that you get with using such a long lens for a shot like this.  I wonder how large the tree will ultimately grow to be given the limitations of its home!

Red Bark

The arboretum in Seattle is unsurprisingly home to many interesting varieties of trees and plants.  One tree that caught my eye was (perhaps) a type of willow that had bark that peeled to reveal an intense red coloration beneath.  Sometimes these colors don’t seem to show up as well in an image but I fortunately had a polarizer with me and that took out some of the reflection and glare and allowed the color to show up well.  Cropping in tighter seemed to make more sense, too.

More Logs Than the Average Beach Has

Taking a day off on a sunny day is such a lucky break early in the year.  Getting good weather is not guaranteed.  While my main goal was getting some Growler flying at Coupeville, when I had some spare time, I went down to Fort Casey and wandered along the beach.  The beach there has a ridiculous number of tree trunks that have washed up over time.  I don’t know why they end up here but, given how far up the beach they are, I assume the storms force them in this way.  Even getting past them to the shoreline requires some effort.  The almost endless number of them is quite amazing.

A Lovely Tree On Its Own

I was walking back to the car in the park when I saw the light on this one tree making it look really attractive in the evening conditions.  I only had the 500mm with me so there was only one option.  Time to shoot a pano and stitch the whole thing together when I got home.  Handholding a pano with the 500mm is not ideal but it seemed to work out okay.

Damage From Falling Trees

One evening, I took a walk down to Juanita Bay Park.  As it headed out to one of the platforms, I could see that the railing had a section that was freshly replaced.  A look over the edge showed that one of the trees had shed a large chunk.  I guess this must have wiped out the old railing material.  They had done a good job of getting the replacement in place but had left the branch where it had fallen.  I am glad I wasn’t there when it fell as I imagine my head might not have been so easily fixed.

Spooky Tree Trunk

The Pacific Northwest provides a lot of dark and damp environments within which things can grow.  The shady environment is not just good for them but it also provides a spooky setting for visiting humans.  As we walked down through the trees to get to Short Sand Beach in Oswald West State park, we passed a tree along the trail that looked like exactly the sort of thing a set designer would come up with for some supernatural movie.  It looked like it was designed to capture the unwary.  On a sunny day, it was interesting.  On a dark and cold evening, it might be a little less appealing.

A Tree Trunk Supporting Sea Life

The Pacific Northwest shorelines are strewn with tree trunk.  Whether they have been washed in to the see or are strays from the logging business, doesn’t matter.  There are tons of them everywhere.  This one was on Cannon Beach.  I have no idea where it originally came from but it had washed up here at some point and got quite established in the sand.  The surface of the wood had become the home of a multitude of sea creatures.  It was festooned with them.  I wonder how much they depend on it staying there or, if it gets washed out again in the next storm, they would be in trouble.