Posted April 7th, 2009

Scar Tissue

Tree trunks are one of my favourite subjects for macro photography. They can be especially beautiful and intriguing where the bark has been damaged and the subsequent healing process and growth of the tree over time has produced colourful areas of varnished exposed wood, encrusted resin and residual bark fragments. The colours always seem to be richest and the textures most pronounced in late winter and early spring. This may have more to do with the lighting than seasonal changes within the tree as brilliant sunshine reflecting off pure white snow provides strong illumination from below. That bottom lighting was dominant in this instance where the subject area was on the shady side of the tree and much of the blue skylight was blocked by the spruce canopy but the surrounding snow cover gleamed in full sunlight.
Pentax K10D, Sigma AF 70mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro @ f/16