Friend

I walk essentially the same route around Peters Hill in the Arboretum pretty much every morning. Given when the sun actually rises sufficiently to create daylight, and since I start my walk quite early, lately I’ve been getting home before the sun is fully up. That’s not a problem for me except that I’ve really wanted to do a portrait of my current favorite tree.

It’s an old beech tree, along the Walter Street side of the Hill, surrounded by several other beech trees of approximately the same vintage - i.e., old.

So today I walked back up the hill mid-afternoon to do a portrait. The problem is how to capture this entire, huge tree with one frame. Beeches tend to grow their limbs horizontally and they can extend for 20 or more feet. So today I brought my extra-wide-angle lens. You have to watch out for distortion but it’s great for getting a generous field of view.

I’m pretty sure this isn’t the final word - I mean, picture - of this tree. I want to portray what it looks like, what it’s gone through, the range of experiences in its long life that account for the missing limbs, the twists and turns it’s taken in its long life.

Feels like a challenging exercise. But I want to be friends!