Although I should be working on Life’s Rules, I have been editing some of my books. So far “The Pumpkin Project” and “Exploring the Ozark Hills” are redone with photographs ready for printing, corrections and other miscellaneous. I opened the Dent County Flora Trees book and found problems with trees waiting for me.
Trees Are Challenging
I am not tall, but it wouldn’t matter if I was. Trees are taller. Getting the pictures I want for the Flora book isn’t easy.
Bark is easy. After all, the trunk is there right in front of me. And I can usually snag a branch to pull down during the winter to get a picture of the winter bud. In the summer, the same technique gets me leaf pictures.
That’s three of the pictures I need for the book. There are three more: flowers, fruit and tree.
Isn’t a Tree Photograph Easy?
You must be thinking of a yard tree. You know, one of those single trees growing out in the open.
In the wild, most trees grow in the middle of other trees and vegetation. They blend into this sea of green. And the sea of green is what you see in the photograph, not the tree.
Sometimes I can find a tree growing in a yard or a cemetery or other place where it is alone. Perhaps this is cheating a bit, but I have found the tree in the wild, gotten most of the pictures there and only want a picture of the tree so the tree is easily seen. It helps me overcome one of the problems with trees.
What About Flowers and Fruit?
Some trees like dogwoods and redbuds are small. It’s easy to get pictures of their flowers and seeds.
Other trees like maples, sycamores, oaks do have flowers – up in the top branches. I must either climb the tree (Not Happening) or learn to levitate (Also Not Happening).
How do I get the pictures? Sometimes a tree falls, but is still growing. Sometimes a younger tree still has branches I can reach up and snag to pull down. It takes searching and watching and luck.
Time Is Crucial
Another of the problems with trees is being there at the right time. Many of the trees bloom very early in the spring when I am busy doing other things or the weather is not very inviting.
Of course, the flowers come before the seeds form. This can be a short time, a month or less as with elms. It can be several months requiring repeat visits impatiently waiting and hoping some creature doesn’t dine on the only ones you can reach.
And all of this ignores the biggest of my problems with trees: finding and identifying the trees in the first place.
