Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Sidewalk tourism: tree bark

It's cold here now, so, outdoor photography has pretty much ceased. I really don't like being cold, so the less time I spend in the cold — the happier I am.

Anyhow, every year when I go out on treks of sidewalk tourism — along with photographing leaves and flowers — I also take pictures of tree bark. I'm sure this must seem very weird to anyone who sits on their porch or in their home who happens to be watching me do this. Of course, I'm sure it also seems weird that I'm taking pictures of the leaves on their tree too. Apparently photography is a weird hobby when not being done at a nature sanctuary or a tourist attraction or a family gathering...







I never sat down in school or at home and learned to identify plants, so half the time I have to ask someone what it actually is that I have taken a picture of. I know this is a birch, a pine, and a sycamore respectively, but I'm not all too particular with my tree types or identifications... although, apparently there are a lot of sycamores in town, as well as maples... but not too many birch trees. There aren't a lot of oaks either.

Photographing tree bark was actually something I started doing for my Christmas cards. I thought it would look cool as a background. And the process of doing it actually taught me how to use my camera more effectively. Let's say my first sets of photos were annoyingly out of focus, since the camera is one of those autofocus digitals, and I had yet to figure out to flip through the settings to find the "close up." Once I had this figured out, the picture quality improved dramatically.
You can check out my cards here:
birches | sycamores | more birches | variety of barks

Holy cow, it's December, and I have like 2 weeks to finish 4 graphics for the family calendar! Eek! No matter how far ahead I have attempted to plan, this happens every year. So, I hope you're all out & about & getting ready for the holidays in spite of the cold!
: )

7 comments:

Sueann said...

The tree bark photos are fab!!!!! And that is a cool idea to use them as backgrounds!! Love it!!
I hate the cold too...my hands don't work right when they are cold and it is hard to work the camera with gloves!! Ha!
Hope you catch up with your holiday plans!!
Hugs
SueAnn

SouthernSass said...

Very cool shots - the first is my favorite. Good luck with finishing your project!

Out on the prairie said...

I laughed since the 1st thing I thought was the names of each tree.Its the scientist in me. I have overlaid a portrait on the bark and got a rather unique photo.To cold isn't a good excuse, I just dress warmer, otherwise I would miss the beauty I find all winter.I just got a thermos with a shoulder strap that is real nice to bring along.

happyone said...

Really like the different textures in the tree bark.
Hope you get all your projects done!

Kelly said...

....great photos of the bark. I love photographing it too. All the patterns are so interesting...especially the sycamores.

thank you! The cards arrived safe and sound and are beautiful. I'm so happy I won!

Hilary said...

I'm glad you figured out how to make your camera work for you on these closeup bark images. It was just a matter of your byte being worse than your bark. ;)

helen said...

what great images - they look mostly like birch - but there may some other varieties there to!