Today’s Post by Joe Farace
A few years ago Mary and I attended an outing with a group of photographers and we were shooting in Bryce Canyon and other scenic parts of Utah. After one day’s shoots one of the attendees asked me, “why are you photographing trees? Every time I turn around you’re shooting another tree.” What I tried to explain to him was the simple fact that I like photographing trees.
And this attitude carries over to my photographing some trees in Infrared as well as all kinds of trees including this bristlecone pine.
The bristlecone is one of three species of pine trees and all three species are long-lived and highly resilient to harsh weather and bad soil. One of those species is Pinus ponderosa, commonly known as the ponderosa pine, of which I can see several just by looking out my office window here on Daisy Hill, is a large species that’s native to the western United States and Canada and is the most widely distributed pine species found in North America.
Bristlecone pines grow in scattered subalpine groves at high altitude, such as Mount Evans in Colorado where the image at right was made. The tree’s name comes from the prickles on the female cones. Another one of the three species, Pinus longaeva, is among the longest-lived life forms on Earth. Methuselah is a 4,848-year-old bristlecone pine tree growing high in the White Mountains of Inyo County in eastern California.
Despite their age and low reproductive rate, bristlecone pines tend to occupy new open ground but they compete poorly in less-than-harsh environments, making them difficult to cultivate. They do very well, however, where most other plants cannot even grow, such as in rocky soils in areas with virtually no rainfall.
How I Made this Photo: I made the featured photograph while Mary and I were on a camera club group shoot using a Nikon FE SLR and Vivitar Series I 24-48mm f/3.8 lens with an exposure that was unrecorded. Film was Kodak Ektachrome 100. Scans were from Kodak’s defunct Photo CD process and were opened using Lemke Software’s Graphic Converter that produced fairly good quality files from a Photo CD disc but the software is not without its quirks.
Since it’s National Banana Bread Day and if you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to buy me a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.50) or maybe a sice of banana bread, click here. And if you do, thanks so very much.