Lesson #5 - Trees

Charlie started the workshop talking about one of the photographers who has inspired him the most - Ansel Adams.  It was interesting to hear someone else’s comments about a photographer I so highly respect.  The first two images shown were of Ansel’s aspen studies, so that’s as good a beginning for starting the illustrated portion of the blog post.

For us, the word aspens triggers our Fall 2018 trip, a primary goal of which was to photograph aspens in the mountains of Utah.

That brought us to, among other places, the Pando Forest, which is the heaviest and one of the oldest living organisms on earth.  It’s a 108-acre forest that consists of, genetically, a single tree.  We were fortunate to spend an evening and a morning there, and to photograph aspens at a few other locations that year.  But the morning with the Pando aspens was the best!

Of course Charlie showed plenty of images of the solitary tree.  As Charlie put it, “Everyone loves a good lonely tree.”  If you’ve followed the blog for any period of time, you know I certainly do.  This tree in Yellowstone NP was perched up on a steeply sloped hill and it took using our super-zoom for me to frame it tightly.

Another topic that came up is how trees handle strong side lighting brilliantly (pun intended), especially when the background is in shadow.  When Charlie showed his images taken in those conditions, I knew I had to dig up my images from one particular afternoon at Yosemite NP.  And while I knew the appeal that strong side-lighting can bring to an image, I never fully appreciated the role that the warm yellow colors of the sunlit subject and the complementary blue cool color of the shadowed background play in the appeal of such images. Now that Charlie has discussed it on several occasions, it becomes almost obvious.

As I’ve hinted at over the past weeks, the workshop has helped Ann and I think about and better understand “why” certain images work, or don’t work.  Why a certain image is successful and, perhaps, why not.  It isn’t always an absolute thing, but that process of thinking should, in the long run, help influence how aware we are of certain issues while we’re making an image so we can incorporate elements, or work to exclude them.  

In discussing Ansel’s work, Charlie mentioned some of the close-up photographs of tree bark that Ansel did.  So of course I had to revisit my own images of bark, again from Yosemite made during our first trip there.

Later on, Charlie showed another detail, this time of a tree and a wall, which brought to mind a detail made during the Yosemite trip I slipped and damaged my camera.  Fortunately, the camera continued to operate after the fall or else this image would never have been made.

During the course of the session, Charlie showed a couple of tree images from around Petra, Jordan where he has hosted workshops, and where he discussed trees that show a heroic effort to simply survive.  What immediately came to mind is a tree that I have returned to again and again at the Devil’s Garden in the Grand Staircase Escalante.

In some ways, it has become a familiar friend.  And I have to admit that even when I do not photograph it, I make sure to swing by and say hello, knowing that someday I may return and it may be gone.  I hope not but . . .

I have to admit that I do not have nearly as many photographs of groups of trees as Charlie does.  And therein lies an opportunity for photographic growth.  As I worked my way through images I’ve developed that included trees, I realize that I have made plenty of solitary tree images, and even images where the trees frame a subject in the distance.

Yet groups of trees have often evaded me.  Perhaps because they are so difficult to photograph, or because they have not existed in the clusters or rows that are so prevalent in the places Charlie has visited.  

Instead, my focus has often turned to the solitary tree, if not a part of the solitary tree.

It has been with the solitary tree that I so often have been inspired to create an image.  Charlie explained that photography makes us notice things.  He said, “It’s about seeing, perception, drinking it all in and being compelled to create an image.”  Then he repeated what must be his favorite quote from Ansel Adams, “Recognition and pre-visualization blended into one single moment of awareness.” 

Who am I to say that either of those greats is wrong?

It was hearing someone else talk about concepts like that that made the workshop so useful (and the fact that Ann and I would bounce session topics back and forth during our morning walks).  And as I was thinking about the focus of the first workshop session (relationships) and the most recent discussion of trees, I was reminded of an image I’d made during a trip to the Olympics.  After tracking it down, I now understand better why I am so drawn to it.

And see why Charlie finds reflections so inviting and such a useful element in photography.

I think one of the things I hadn’t really thought much about is the fact that, many times, I’m compelled to make an image.  I can’t always explain why at the time, but that’s ok.  One should follow their intuition, and then work to make it the best image possible.  This workshop has helped me start thinking about why those images may (or may not) work, so I can see even better images in the future, or to craft images I’m compelled to make even better.

So, for example with the image above, it was not as simple as finding the solitary tree.  The composition of the elements come into play, finding a calming balance of elements. As does the relationship between the horizontal lines in the fissures and the distant horizon line. And, while I didn’t know it at the time, part of the reason the above image works is that the green of the trees is complementary to the rose-colored reds of the hills and the sky.  

I guess the same can be said about the colors divided by the white tree below.  As Charlie might describe it, the colors of the background helps present the subject. 

I have a long way to go beforeI have the discerning eye, the patience, and the willingness to discard an image that has any major flaws in the way Charlie does.  But that is a part of the journey that I love - the growing, the working and the improving that it entails.

So as a result of the workshop, I can say, yes, I wish there was a bit better separation between the foreground tree and the trees behind in the image below.  It was something I tried to, but couldn’t resolve, at the time that I made it. I guess I didn’t have the courage that Charlie suggested we have - to not make the image and just walk away from it.

I guess I’m still too willing to compromise, despite trying to push my work farther.  I must do better next time.

Hopefully Ann and I will soon be able to return to making photographic trips, and to begin exploring a new continent.

And with any luck, we’ll find not only lovely trees to photograph, but groups of trees and forests that compel us to make images.