A Treemendous Subject

What is a good subject? Something that grabs your attention, it stands out, it's interesting to look at and is big enough in the frame for the viewer to see the detail. Trees fit the bill, from blossom details, to bark texture and twisted interesting shapes. I love photographing them and I have posted a selection at my website, PhotoForMyWall.com.

Most people see, well..., just a tree. As a photographer you need to tell the trees story, have it set a scene, draw attention to it's life, how it affects it's surroundings. Once you start thinking of a tree as a living entity, you can starts to interpret it in an interesting way.

I have a set of images I took in a woodland that was terribly regimented and straight. The trees form and avenue, they get ravaged by deer sharpening their antlers and they grow beside rocks that have sat immobile for centuries. I try to think of the story of these trees, the shapes they form and I try to interpret them artistically. Here they are.

Out for a walk in the Borders I noticed a dry stone wall enclosing a wood. To me they looked like corralled ents, stretching ther limbs out to freedom. They are vaguely threatening, massive and held back by such a low wall, dark forms, densely packed. OK it's a bit "out there" but I think you need to use your imagination if you are going to try to make an interesting image. i'm not saying taht anyone else will see the ents, but so long as I, as the photographer do, some of that interest may be created and others can interpret it in their own way.

So what about just creating a pretty scene? Does it have to tell a story. Well, it can do both. Here is an image I took on a trip into the Bathgate hills last summer - it shows the warmth of the evening, and it tells a story at least to me. It reminds me of quite times alone in the hills, a place where I am happy and it reminds me now, in the depth of winter, how it felt to have the sun shine on my face. The story is a memory to me and hopefully it imparts an emotional response in others.