Looking Up - Arnold Arboretum

A mature tree is an awesome thing, clasped to the earth, connected to the sky, drinking in light, breathing out oxygen, sheltering the land, nurturing the soil. What would the earth be without trees ?

Gleditsia triacanthos, Honeylocust Tree; Arnold Arboretum

A recent visit to the Arnold Arboretum in Boston provided a glorious opportunity to photograph trees. After all, the word “arbor” is Latin for tree and arboreta are collections of trees.

I confess I was once uninterested in traditional arboretums because there tends to be little structure and few other plantings to inspire gardening. But now I have learned to appreciate the astonishing unique beauty of trees, and there is no better place to study them than a good arboretum such as the Arnold.

Gymnocladus dioicus, Kentucky Coffeetree; Arnold Arboretum

A tree that has had the chance to grow up in the care of an Arboretum is a chosen specimen, on display to represent an entire family of brothers and sisters that may live nowhere near the collection. I have come to appreciate these trees as honored examples of their race.

Quercus x schuettei, Schuett Oak tree, Arnold Arboretum

Just as snowflakes or fingerprints are all different, every tree is different from every other tree. Each specie has its own signature DNA with leaf shape, bark structure, and branching within its native habitat with phenotypic distinction. Each grows a bit differently in every microclimate, so that by the time any given tree is mature it is utterly unique.

Gleditsia triacanthos ‘Skyline, Honeylocust Tree; Arnold Arboretum

Looking up at a tree to see the branching and scarring and subtle growth patterns one can imagine its history, what it has seen, what birds might have visited, how many squirrels have jumped from limb to limb, and what plants it has already outlived.

Trees tend to be hard to photograph simply because they are so large and nearly impossible to separate from the landscape. My favorite trees, the Oaks of California, can often be found alone in the landscape, as seen in a previous post, but most trees are mingled into woodlands or crowded into gardens and are really hard to see in their full magnificence.

Here is a grove of woodland Oak trees in the Arnold Arboretum. Note that I want to photograph one specific tree. I look for any opportunity to isolate trees to show their shape, but stepping back far enough to see the whole tree and its branch structure brings in all the others.

Instead, I find I can walk right up under a tree and look straight up from the vantage point of a few inches away from the trunk. A tripod is always critical in making these compositions, though I confess, I often get a crick in the neck straining to look into the view finder.

Quercus alba, White Oak tree, Arnold Arboretum

From across the garden, I saw this Green Ash tree with butter yellow fall foliage.

I walked up underneath it, both to isolate the tree and to help make the autumn foliage glow.

Fraxinus pennsylvanica ‘Vinton’, Green Ash tree – Arnold Arboretum

Usually, I prefer a vertical format so that the trunk of the tree leads up into the composition – and the tree towers as a tree should.

Trees are tall after all, so a vertical usually makes sense, but sometimes when a tree has an especially nice branch pattern only a horizontal can really show the display. Here is a vertical and horizontal of the same honey locust tree:

Gleditsia triacanthos ‘Imperial’, Honeylocust Tree;

In order to get a proper exposure to show off the bark and still have color in the sky I usually will underexpose the original digital file so that I can hold of the highlights and color in the sky, then in the postproduction I will open up the shadows. This is something I could never do in years of shooting with film.

Before and After Slider Juglans nigra – Black Walnut tree

The digital era has opened up a new way of expressing trees in photographs.

Oxydendron arboreum – Sourwood tree; Arnold Arboretum

Quercus bicolor – Swamp White Oak tree; Arnold Arboretum

Gleditsia triacanthos ‘Skyline, Honeylocust Tree; Arnold Arboretum

Looking up at the trees also allows the leaves to glow because of the back light. This effect will happen even if there is not strong, sunny light in the canopy because to open up the shadows, the photographer is effectively overexposing – which will make the leaves bright anyway.

However, when there is strong sunlight behind the leaves, there will be special opportunities, as with this Golden Larch.

Pseudolarix amabilis – Golden Larch tree, Arnold Arboretum

Note the sunlight not only makes the needles glow, it creates interesting shadows in cross patterns, especially when I darken the the exposure to bring out the orange glow.

I only had time for one day of shooting at the Arnold Arboretum while I was in Boston, but it was a glorious day. These are trees I never see in California, I felt honored to be in their presence.