Drew, you do realize that talk is cheap. We like to see the image....well, most of us would.
Les
Drew, you do realize that talk is cheap. We like to see the image....well, most of us would.
Les
Being under the big trees when I was in CA felt like being a guest in someone else's house.
Someone great, and very old. We tread lightly there.
Looking forward to what you might be able to show us from that trip.
As another NJ resident, if Alan cares to let me know where those places are that he speaks of,
I can make it worth his while... ;-)
Joe. I'm still looking.
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Our last day was yesterday and we spent it in the Humboldt Redwoods. In my favorite grove with two wonderful photographers we worked all day in the big trees and in the Bull Creek watershed. Light was amazing as it always seems to be for me when I visit here. The bonus was that mother nature took a deep breath and held it all day long. I worked with the 810, 820 and the 1417 in the area and it was an amazing day with great company. Thanks Vaughn and Matt. Vaughn thanks for showing us the Albino Redwood as well. I consider 6-8 hours close to home for me. When I lived in Ventura I did day trips to Yosemite. It was 6 hours from my front door to Tunnel View. Now it is 6 hours to Jedidiah Smith. Like I said a day trip. This time it was a week.
Up Redwood Creek there are pocket-groves of redwoods on terraces above the creek that can be difficult to see due due the explosive growth creekside. But once inside these pocket-groves it is cathedral-like. The floors are centuries of redwood leaves, the trees well over 300 feet tall, eight to 15 feet in diameter, emerging from the ground with a stillness even cathedrals find hard to master. And when the wind blows, the sounds rival the organs, but perhaps not quite so dynamic.
I backpack in with a 4x5 or a 5x7...it would be nice to squeeze a late season solo trip in...3 or 4 nights before the rains start in earnest. The maples are looking so good!
It was fun having Jim and Matt here. And they brought great weather with them, and there was often still air for our long exposures. The afternoon rain welcomed in the Fall and was a rare treat. We'll get a touch more rain over the coming extended weekend, and I am looking forward to November as the buckthorn, alders and berry leaves turn and drop. It opens up the forest nicely and all the side creeks come alive.
I move at glacial speed, so here is a photo of the parking lot (freshly re-paved) at Rockafella Grove as we were leaving.
"Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China
We have forests like that up here... if I drive 30 minutes, I'm in massive cedar rain forests, all draped in moss. But the areas where I really love to photograph, are 4 hours or longer away...
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I have never been to the Pine Barrens of New Jersey but I read read several books by Tom Brown Jr. about it. Seems as wild a place as any.
At one time I was considering taking a field class with him, aka The Tracker.
Too late now.
Tin Can
It has been a few decades, but I have backpacked through some of those cedar groves on the western slopes of the Cascades. A wonderous forest.
Just got a photo from one of my boys of a grove of native monkey puzzle trees in Chile. And there are gum trees in South Australia that rival the height of our coastal redwoods...hope to see them someday. I love the mountain beeches of New Zealand with fantails flying along side you as you hike (eating the insects you stir-up), and bird song that just stop you in your tracks...and once I slept in a towering grove of tree ferns while hitch-hiking on the west coast of the South Island, waking up in a 200 million old forest.
On a backpack trip into the Yolla Bollys with one of my boys this summer I got to revisit some old incense cedars I have admired for almost 40 years. Still looking good...Douglas Fir, Sugar Pine, Ponderosa/Jeffery Pine, Western juniper, even a yew or two.
16x20 print from 4x5 negative:
"Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China
Oh Gosh, Vaughn, I've got an enormous Monkey Puzzle tree (Aracaria) in my front yard. But it could hypothetically grow another hundred feet. The squirrels love it because nothing else can climb it; and the hawks won't dare try to intercept a squirrel amidst all those thorns. Tree squirrels have very long claws which function as standoffs, elevating their feet above the prickles. Most people don't realize that unless they've had a pet squirrel.
Quite close to where I live, Randy. Certain places can seem very strange, depending on weather conditions,
and the mood one is in. Most areas have been clear-cut or burned many times since the 18th and 19th centuries, when
there was an iron industry here, so there is little old or "climax" growth as I believe the word is. The woods reclaims
abandoned buildings very quickly, with enthusiastic help from the local vandals.
I was photographing in the remains of one of those towns last week and may post some images from those visits next week.
Working in there can be challenging due to the lack of many clear sight lines, the woods often being full of vines and
understory shrubs. More walking and looking than setting up the camera, typically.
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