Lens: 24-105 f/4L @ 35mm, f/5.6, ISO 500, 1/10sec.

As it turned out, the fog was so dense that I couldn’t see anything other than this tree until well after 10am, at which point the magical morning light was long gone. I didn’t get the shot I wanted, but I did get a pretty neat photo of something unplanned. That is the way it often works with nature photography. I rarely get what I expect or intend to get. Nature always throws a curve ball, but if I’m lucky I still manage to get something worthwhile. Even when I don’t, I still enjoy the pursuit of captivating images.

The Cottonwood tree from which I took the cuttings.

Supposedly Cottonwoods are one of the easiest trees to grow cuttings from and since the Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides) is among my favorite of trees native to Missouri I thought it sounded like a fun experiment. The farm is home to numerous cottonwood trees, but most of them are confined to one isolated patch of woods and I think it would be nice to have a few of them around the yard.

The cuttings after I planted them in the ground.

I did some quick research on how to grow cuttings, but I’m still not overly confident they will survive. I did some experimenting, some of the cuttings I left a few leaves and twigs in place, and some I cut into a straight stick.

So we’ll see how it goes. If it works, awesome! If not, I’m not out anything because it was kind of fun to try!

Amidst the rubble there are a few noteworthy survivors. This aspen (pictured at top), the only one still alive out of the 14 Aspens I planted is not only alive but rather healthy. I have determined it must just be a freak of nature.

Also alive and well are the Loblolly and Shortleaf (yay!) Pines. Not only are they not dead, but they don’t even appear stressed. Interesting how the native pine is the only one unharmed by this particularly brutal summer. I am not sure whether the tree pictured is a Shortleaf or Loblolly…they are nearly identical.

It is also encouraging that most of the CRP trees seemed to be doing well, but again, those are all natives so big surprise.

In spite of this hefty setback, I will continue to plant trees of all varieties in mass quantities about the farm and I imagine I will continue to try to get trees of more northerly persuasion to grow here as well.

For those of you interested in the technical stuff:
1/1250 @ f/8
105mm
ISO 200

First, I have completed my trifecta of the poplar genus. This includes Quaking Aspen, Bigtooth Aspen, and the Cottonwood. I like these trees because the smooth grey-white bark reminds me of the mountains. Plus, the heart shaped leaves make a nice sound in the wind. The photo is a grove of native cottonwoods I found in the woods behind the house. Being native, they do quite well here. I can’t say the same for the Quaking Aspens; only 1 of the original 13 looks healthy after suffering 3 Missouri summers. Two others are clinging to life, and the rest are dead.

Another tree I am experimenting with is Black Locust. Mainly because they supposedly make nice firewood in a relatively short amount of time, but I also hear the flowers smell really nice. The botanical name is is Robina Pseudoacacia. I would imagine the species portion of the name comes from the fact that its leaves resemble that of an Acacia tree.

When I transitioned into digital, one downside was my loss of this effect. I tried numerous ways, including photoshop layers, digital effects, and even using a red filter and converting the image to black and white. No matter what I tried, the results looked plain terrible. It seemed that JPG files deteriorate when exposure and contrast (especially in the blue channel) is pushed to the extreme.

Saturday I decided to try some new things, in hopes I would be able to better reproduce the “ansel adamsy” look. I had come to the conclusion that using an actual red filter on a digital camera was not the way to go. So I shot normal color photos, and used a polarizer filter to keep the nice blue sky from getting washed out. If you have a graduated neutral density filter (who doesn’t!?) that might work as well. Then I set my camera to “RAW” mode, which saves images straight to disk with no processing or JPG compression. Shooting RAW files vs. JPG allows significantly greater flexibility in adjusting color temperature (white balance), exposure, and all the other settings I would need to digitally reproduce the effect film use to achieve so effortlessly…but at the expense of files that can only be opened by special programs and can exceed 35mb each! Yikes!

So here is a color example from Saturday’s shoot:
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And here is the same photos with the black/white + red filter effect:

Here are a couple others of two Bur Oaks:

I think it’s a fairly cool look, although I feel as though I am somewhat violating my unspoken rule of minimalist “photoshopping” to my photography. Then again, this same effect can be achieved via traditional photography techniques. After all, one of my favorite photographers, Ansel Adams did it back in the ’30s and ’40s.

Take for example Maples. No one ever associates Maples with flowers. Here is a Norway Maple in my front yard. At a glance it appears that the tree is simply pushing out this year’s set of leaves. Closer inspection reveals that it’s actually the maple’s bouquet of flowers, it’s offering to would-be pollinators. I have no idea what those pollinators are, but I’m sure it’s some kind of insect.

And here we have a Norway Spruce. Apparently someone of Norwegian descent must have lived here decades ago and attempted to recreate their homeland. I assume these are the starts of flowers, but I could be wrong. Spruces and Firs often have red, purple or bluish colored flowers and I believe most conifers tend to rely solely on the wind for pollination as they produce exorbitant amounts of pollen.

In addition to replacing dead trees, I also more densely populated existing groupings. The closer the trees are, the sooner their branches will begin to touch, and the faster they will grow height, rather than width. Pines (the vast majority of what I plant) require loads of sunlight, so when their needles started getting shaded by another tree, they start racing upwards to avoid being shaded to death.

I like planting the trees and imagining what they will look like in 5, 10, 20 years down the road. I also like the idea of someday stepping out my back door and smelling the pine scent in the air. I get my love of trees from my mom, however I get my specific love of Pine trees from my dad.

So here are my new specimens and why I chose them:

• Jeffrey Pine: Bark smells like vanilla. Yum.
• Grand Fir: Looks cool.
• Dawn Redwood: One of the oldest known tree species, can be found in fossils.
• Concolor Fir: Found some of these growing in the Mark Twain Natl Forest…Looks cool.
• Douglas-Fir: Gets really tall, looks cool.
• Deodar Cedar: Unique and looks cool.

So, basically I just picked out ones that I think look cool. I’m sure to most people these trees all look exactly the same, but thanks to my geek skillz I was able to easily identify each one once I got them out of the boxes. I’m sure it seems like a waste of time and money to a lot of people, but I enjoy the process of planting them and watching them grow over the years. And eventually I’ll enjoy the way they change the look and feel of the property!

Dawn Redwood

The third redwood, which you’ve probably never heard of is the lesser known Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides), one of the oldest known tree species. This species is interesting because it had been identified only in fossils and was thought to be extinct until a grove of them was discovered in China in the middle part of the 20th century. So this is one of only a handful of tree species I know of which were around when dinosaurs roamed the planet.

The scientific name suggests to me that scientists don’t think this redwood is quite as cool as it’s record setting cousins. That, or they think it’s just too weird… which may be somewhat true. In many ways I actually think the Dawn Redwood is more similar to a Bald Cypress (also a distant relative). I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a Dawn Redwood but they are the only redwood that will grow in Missouri so I should probably plant a few.