Do trees ever win?

Where are we? Revisiting ‘Canticum’ post

Just one day after posting pictures of Michigan rural boundary trees from photos taken in October, I spoke to family friends still living in the area. The trees were slated for death. The purpose is to widen a road with six inches of paved shoulder. One wonders who is the recipient of the board lumber from so many old-growth maples. Some are decrepit, others sound and whole.

I drove back to the straight country road. Residents will have regrets. Noise pollution will bother them. An avenue of shade and a thick wooden wall against the wind will vanish. Heavy truck traffic will gravitate to this plain series of treeless, flat fields and the new “Class-A” road. No money will fall from those trucks.

Each tree had a new, garish number.

What colors do we see?

Mostly the cold gray of December, muddy wheat and cornfields, and occasional bursts of sunlight after a rainy, winter night. But that is inadequate. The subtleties of tone are so much more evident in the limited palette of December trees. Bright flashes of orange from the numbers.

What tools are used?

My newest camera. A Canon EOS90D. Purchased on deep sale last year, due to the new mirrorless models hitting the market. I do not live from photography, I collect images for reference. Standard lens, no need for telephoto. The camera speaks to my tablet, which is well-stocked with photography editing software. Lightroom is my organizer and iPad Pro a primary tablet. There may be raindrop spatters on the lens. These photos are new and primarily unprocessed.

What can we do?

Document a century of silent, winter trees. 3 hours, 3 miles, 30 trees, 222 pictures, before I leave my winter holiday with family and friends, returning to my day job across the country. Weather has not cooperated. Starting at 262, gray sky prevails. By 180, you can see some blue sky. I do not collect every tree, I am concentrating on the ancient maples, bypassing skinnier fellows barely wide enough to bear the numbers. Just a few today. A sampling. Some, especially 180, have the power to be their own posts at a later date.