Not so easy...

My first disciplined shots of trees as subjects for my photography were essentially portraits. Some of them worked but it was hard to get an image that said something other than, gee, what a pretty tree. Nothing wrong with pretty but there were other folks doing that quite well. What was I adding to the conversation?  

So I started going in closer, one of my favorite tactics. Roots, limbs, and finally bark. It was easy to get shots with lots of texture. And I accumulated quite a collection of shots. Lots of close-ups of textured bark, sometimes with holes made by animals. 

What these images often didn’t have was a strong design – a combination of color, texture, shape that made something worth looking at long enough to sort out exactly what it was. 

Sometimes it takes me a day or a week to decide whether a shot is worthy of that amount of looking. I love the mix of colors and textures. But the ones that stay with me have more going on. Take a look at this image. It’s new so I’m still not sure how I feel about it. It’s a Red Maple (bless the Arb for putting name tags on all their trees!). Let me know what you think,,,