Well here we are in September, so in a few weeks we are hopefully going to be seeing some Autumn colours. Certainly Autumn is a time of year when everyone starts to notice our deciduous broadleaf trees as their leaves change colour. Spring and Summer provide more subtle opportunities to photograph trees and this year I have collected a few photographs of trees that have appealed to me on my travels. They make a diverse collection, so here are six trees with a story....
My first tree is an oak tree. This picture is called Oaks Revisited because I have photographed these trees before. This picture was taken in early May. Spring was late this year, it was really cold all through April so the leaves were late to appear on the trees.
This oak woodland is in a valley near Sugarloaf in Wales. The trees are widely spaced and very spindly. They range above the path on the hill and at this point the sun is coming into the woods from the left. My subject tree is the one on the left. This picture was taken at a focal length of 18 mm - the widest setting on my standard lens. I was aiming to include the fullest extent of the tree branches
I like this composition because it feels balanced. The trees in the background are very complex but the light from the left helps us to distinguish the branches of the feature tree. The slender swirly tree in the centre of the image is a nice point of secondary interest and the open ground in the foreground gives the front row trees some space
My second tree was photographed at the end of May on the top of a hill in Mortimer Forest near Ludlow. I really liked this elegant silver birch with a smattering of leaves and a dusting of late bluebells at its feet. Perhaps it is cooler at the top of the hill at night and that has kept the Spring feel to this scene despite the imminent Summer months.
It is always good to be able to get a tree isolated against the sky so that it isn’t lost to us in the background. I stood back and walked around this tree to get an angle that caught the light on the bark.
I took several pictures from different angles to give myself the best chance of taking a keeper. I am glad that I did, because when I processed my pictures I discovered that I needed separation between the bottom of the tree and the bushes behind. This is one of only two pictures where I got down low to take the picture. It makes a big difference to the clarity of the picture and that is what I learned from taking this photograph.
An added benefit on this day were the puffy white clouds in a blue sky. The light was not super harsh despite the picture being taken in the middle of the day so there is an overall delicacy to the image. Note the hill on the horizon.
My third picture was taken in June on the way back from a walk up Brown Clee in Shropshire. It just so happens that the same hill is on the horizon as in my second image. That hill is the Wrekin.
I think that the main tree in this picture is a birch. It certainly has some age and the three main branches coming from the base create an airy feel. This tree caught my eye because it reminded me of the trees that I have seen in landscape paintings. For example the work of the welsh 18th century landscape artist Richard Wilson. The tree frames the view to the wider landscape in the same way that artists often use a tree in their compositions.
I took several pictures of this tree from slightly different viewpoints, some without the overhanging Sycamore branches. I prefer this image because I think that the branches add another layer to the view and without the branch at the top the viewers gaze easily wonders up and out of the picture. I know that some photographers object to these intrusions, particularly the leaves on the lower right. In this case I think they add balance because the tree is in the shade and the far view is very bright.
I find that a good subject will often cause me to retrace my steps and so it was with this tree. I walked passed it down the hill, admired it and then went back to work with it and create a picture.
My fourth tree is an Ash tree pictured in June against a completely blue sky.
This picture was taken at the Brockhampton Estate near Bromyard. We parked in the top car park and walked down to the manor house through the trees. We were in the shade, but up above us the sun was shining on the trees and the leaves were backlit. I took many pictures trying to capture this phenomenon and most of them just ended up being chaotic and messy.
Unfortunately I think that some of the Ash trees in this wood had been affected by a fungal disease that causes die back and can ultimately kill the trees. Perhaps as a result of this some trees had been cleared and this effectively created a space in the canopy around this tree. I think it is that space which makes this image work, it separates this tree from its neighbours enough for us to make sense of the branches relative to the trunk.
This image was taken at a focal length of 30 mm so it depicts the tree very much as I saw it on the day. I took another image with the trunk vertical in the picture which I initially preferred. Now I prefer this version with the diagonal because it invokes some of the dizziness that can be induced by spending too much time looking up into the tree tops when you are supposed to be walking!
I didn’t take any pictures of trees in July. Some parts of the month were very hot and others were cloudy so when I got photography opportunities I was concentrating on the wider landscape (or butterflies).
In August we did some walking on the Welsh border near Church Stretton. The light was very harsh as it was the middle of the day in peak summer. As a result, I was effectively attracted to the silhouette of these trees on a hillside. The sun is to the left (note the shadows) and it is a safe bet to suggest that the prevailing wind is from the right. It wasn’t particularly windy on this day but there is a definite lean on the bigger tree. The main tree is a Rowan tree and the berries were already ripe.
I took several pictures of these trees from different angles. There was a good arrangement looking more directly into the sun but that created too much contrast. I like the fact that in this picture the clouds recede back into the distance helping to create a sense of depth. The small tree on the horizon is diminutive but significant because it means there are three trees rather than two and three is generally more pleasing than two.
My last picture taken in late August is definitely a silhouette. I took this at the full extent of my long lens - at 300 mm because this tree was on a hillside way above me. This reminds me of a bonsai tree. I like the way that the lower left branch follows the line of the hill.
I saw the tree from a long way back and photographed it three times, each time getting closer. The closest image is best. With more sky and hill in the picture the tree is diminished and the whole point of this picture is that we should enjoy the shapes of the branches.
Though the sky was grey behind the tree, there was a lot of harsh light so softer conditions would have produce a better picture. Nonetheless I took the picture because it is an attractive tree and I may not walk past it again.
This year I have not generally set out to take pictures of trees but if I see a particularly striking example then I will certainly try to get an image. In this small collection I have been struck by the changing light conditions through soft Spring light, to early Summer exuberance to harsh August light. I am looking forward to Autumn colour but perhaps without that colour we spend more time exploring the character of a tree.