Mt Fuji & Japanese Red Maple

I’ve always loved Japanese red maples.

Saw this photo the other day and it simply took my breath away.

Mount Fuji with Japanese red maples.

So beautiful!

 

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Awe-Inspiring Trees (24): Wistman’s Wood, Dartmoor

Into The Wild Wood

Words & Images by Duncan George

(Duncan George Photography)

If you close your eyes and imagine a wood in a dark fairy tale, what do you see, smell and hear?

(Image credit: Duncan George)

In your minds eye do twisted and sinister trees thick with moss and lichens form anthropomorphic shapes in billowing fog? Underfoot do you struggle for grip on treacherous granite boulders? Perhaps a far off stream provides an aural accompaniment with the the odd and inexplicable crack of a twig sounding ominously close. Does a dank earthy smell pervade the air?

(Image credit: Duncan George)

Just to bring you back to reality, such woods do actually exist and not (just) in Transylvania or some far flung part of Asia but in the UK. On Dartmoor there are three remote high moorland copses of stunted oaks. I think there may be more in Cumbria. The one I have visited on Dartmoor many times is the best known, Wistman’s Wood. The name Wistman’s is thought to derive from wisht-man meaning haunted or pixie-led. The site is believed to have a human involvement dating back to Druid times. When seen in thick fog, in the half light of dawn or dusk it’s easy to see why much folklore and tales of the supernatural surrounds the place.

(Image credit: Duncan George)

It is a fantastic location for art and photography. One of the aspects I like about it is, off-season when I tend to visit, it feels so remote. All the shots in this blog post were taken on Friday morning last week (Nov 2012) and the only other person I saw there (which is unusual in itself, normally I don’t see anyone) was an artist taking photographs to act as as a sketchbook.

(Image credit: Duncan George)

Although Wistman’s isn’t hard to get to in the way that remote Scottish mountains are for example it’s still a challenging drive and hike on Dartmoor in thick fog. Twice out on the moor with visibility down to 2 metres or so I’ve lost my bearings completely and had to use a compass to reorient myself (not something I ever had to do in my previous career in media!). Normally one could rely on the sound of the West Dart River as a guide but fog deadens sound. It’s easy to understand how people can get into trouble in an environment which can quickly switch from benign to malevolent.

(Image credit: Duncan George)

What draws me to the wood is the magical feel of the place. The trees whilst quite small in comparison to normal oaks are fantastically contorted with a myriad of branches, each one being completely unique. Of course every tree is unique but here whilst they share the same genealogy each looks as though penned by a different artist . Furthermore they don’t resemble those in ‘normal’ and more uniform woods and forests.  Wistman’s is located on a hillside strewn with boulders and both trees and granite are coated in a carpet of moss. Some of the trees are draped in lichens as though dressed for Christmas. I’ve never seen lichens so resplendent in any other location. It used to be said that it was alive with adders although thankfully I haven’t seen any. It would be unfortunate to say the least if I set my camera down on a nest.

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All text and photos copyright Duncan George.

To see more of this gentleman’s amazing photography, I urge you to go check out his website. You will not be disappointed!

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Life Finds a Way

Life finds a way.

(Image: Posted in melbourneer.com)

Nature finds a way.

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Tree Reflections

OK… among my (many) fixations, obsessions, fascinations, interests, etc…

Trees.

(Lone Tree of Wanaka Lake, NZ. Image: Jason Rosewarne)

Not only the trees themselves but how they are captured on film.

(‘Dead in the Water’ – Chatsworth, NJ. Image: Richard Lewis)

I ran into these images the other morning.

(‘Misty sunrise’ – Knapps Loch, Scotland. Image: David Dalziel)

A tree or row of trees and how they are reflected in water.

I hope you find them as beautiful and moving as I do.

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Awe-Inspiring Trees (24): Lake Carezza, Italy

It’s not only the old fir trees that make this photo so awe-inspiring. It’s the clouds across the Dolomite mountains in the background. But most importantly, it is the fact that the image is reflected in waters of Lake Carezza (lit. ‘caress’) with circular ripples moving outwards.

(Photograph by Antonio Chiumenti)

“Lake Carezza is a pearl of the Dolomites. Nestled between an ancient forest of grand firs and Latemar mountain, it’s a place of legends and beauty—a nymph lives under its emerald waters. I threw a little stone in the water to add a little mystery to the scene.” (Antonio Chiumenti)

(This photo and caption were submitted to the 2013 National Geographic Photo Contest.)

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Awe-Inspiring Trees (23): Shrouded Forest, Slovakia

And by awe-inspiring, I sometimes mean creepy!

Shrouded Forest, Slovakia

(Image: via bluepueblo.tumblr.com)

And I don’t mean creepy in a negative way. I mean creepy in a delightfully goose-bumpy way!

Love it!

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Awe-Inspiring Trees (22): North Celestial Tree, Spain

North Celestial Tree

Sometimes I run into a photograph where it is not so much the tree itself that is so awesome but the way the photographer uses the tree to create a spectacular image.

Such is the case with the photo below, taken from NASA’s wonderful site, Astronomy Picture of the Day.

(Image Credit: Jerónimo Losada)

Explanation: If you climbed this magnificent tree, it looks like you could reach out and touch the North Celestial Pole at the center of all the star trail arcs. The well-composed image was recorded over a period of nearly 2 hours as a series of 30 second long, consecutive exposures on the night of October 5. The exposures were made with a digital camera fixed to a tripod near Almaden de la Plata, province of Seville, in southern Spain, planet Earth. Of course, the graceful star trails reflect the Earth’s daily rotation around its axis. By extension, the axis of rotation leads to the center of the concentric arcs in the night sky. Convenient for northern hemisphere night sky photographers and celestial navigators alike, the bright star Polaris is very close to the North Celestial Pole and so makes the short bright trail in the central gap between the leafy branches.

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Awe-Inspiring Trees (21): Dark Hedges, County Antrim

Dark Hedges, County Antrim

Sometimes I come across some awe-inspiring trees and one photograph alone simply does not do them justice.

(Image: globaltraveltorusim.blogspot.co.uk)

Such is the case with the Dark Hedges in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

(Photo by Pawel Klarecki)

This beautiful avenue of beech trees was planted by the Stuart family in the eighteenth century

(Via globaltraveltorusim.blogspot.co.uk)

It is one of the most photographed natural phenomena in Northern Ireland.

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Awe-Inspiring Trees (20): Oak Alley Plantation, Louisiana

Oak Alley Plantation, Louisiana

This magnificent ‘tree tunnel’ is situated on the banks of the Mississippi River

(Credit: i.mgur.com)

The canopied path is created by a double row of live oaks that was planted in the early 1700’s, long before the present house was built.

Yet one more reason why I miss The South!

The above text is based on the article “14 Magnificent Tree Tunnels” at Buzzfeed.com.

For a full-resolution image, click here.

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Please visit Oak Alley Plantation at their website and on their Facebook page!

Website: http://www.oakalleyplantation.com/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/oakalleyplantation

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Awe-Inspiring Trees (19): Bamboo Path, Kyoto, Japan

The Sagano Bamboo Forest is located in Arashiyama, a nationally-designated historic site. The pathway you see in the picture below is 500m long, and runs through one of Japan’s most beautiful bamboo forests.

No wonder the Agency for Cultural Affairs declared Arashiyama a “Place of Scenic Beauty”. This forest is close to many famous temple and shrines, including the Adashino Nenbutsu-ji Temple.

The sound the wind makes, as it blows through the tall bamboo trees, has been voted by the Japanese authorities as one of 100 must-preserve sounds of Japan.

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The text is from ‘10 Amazing Tree Tunnels in the World‘ at AmazingWorldStuffs.com.

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