Tuesday 2 September 2008

Solid as an oak - / # 08/207

These oak trees are 700 years old. How do you present an image of a dead straight line of oak trees in the middle of an ancient landscape surrounded by modernity?

The trees were planted 700 years ago as the boundary line to a farm. These, and others, still show clearly that once upon a time something was there, and that men calculated it and made it for a purpose.

This is interesting, exciting even, if you are in the right mood. But showing it in a photo is almost impossible.

There they stand; huge, gnarled, and in a dead straight line, forming a visible statement of a legally recognised boundary. They are absolutely healthy and they survived. We did not cut them down to build yet another warship to bash the Spanish, fight the Dutch or punish that rogue Napoleon. They have survived for 700 years, and they still make their statement. This is the boundary. It stops here.

(I hope that my "post-proceesing" efforts haven't annoyed you. Believe me, without some form of "dramatising" these oaks are "non-photo".)

13 comments:

  1. I leave the comments on the photo to the "professionals". In the meantime, I very much like your text!

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  2. I like your commentary too.
    And in fact I find the post processing really interesting.

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  3. Ce message comme celui du dessous avec les chevreuils, me rappellent celui que j'ai fait avec l'aire d'autoroute, à plus d'un titre :

    *Un chêne vénérable. Des chênes, il en est de toutes sortes, adaptés à tous les climats.
    Le chêne liège du midi par exemple, des chênes qui ne perdent pas leurs feuilles.
    Le chêne est l'arbre des rois de France, il parait que c'est aussi le symbole des catholiques en Vendée, et les protestants eux plantaient un tilleul (lime tree)
    Je peux parler de ces deux arbres pendant des heures.
    Sur mon message donc il y avait un chêne étendant sa branche
    Et la forêt où pousse ce chêne était traversée par George Sand (écrivain français) lorsqu'elle revenait du Berry à Paris, elle a raconté que des brigands attaquaient les voyageurs et qu'à la branche des arbres on trouvait leurs corps pendus. Ce n'était pas il y a si longtemps...

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  4. *Je dispose du procédé "roll over" sur mon blog, qui permet de passer la photo en B&W en passant la souris dessus (avec Internet Exploreur seulement) ; finalement je trouvais que ma photo était plus belle en N&B. C'est le cas pour tes deux photos qui sont éclaboussées de lumière

    En ce qui concerne ta question / le tripod pour ma photo de nuit : la réponse est non, pas de pied.
    Je n'ai pas le temps, je cours en général derrière ma famille ; en l'occurence ce soir là mon mari et mes enfants. Alors j'adopte une haute sensibilité, je me campe bien sur mes pieds, je ne respire plus ; et surtout, j'ai eu la chance de faire la photo à "l'heure bleue". On le voit au petit bout de ciel sur la photo : à l'heure bleue la nuit n'est pas encore tout à fait tombée et donc le peu de lumière du jour qui reste aide à prendre la photo.

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  5. I am almost in a state of shock. We don't even have a whole country that is this old let alone a stand of oaks. Think of it, some of your ancestors and mine, came here from Europe and cut all the trees down, and some of them were much older.

    my Alien

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  6. Not annoyed in the least ... it emphasises your text ... which are getter sooo good ...

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  7. Lovely post. And effective too - got me thinking about the last 700 years!

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  8. Great post today and the trees are wonderful. I think I would have liked them regardless, but I will take your word for the fact that they needed a little jazzing up.
    Who wouldn't after 700 years?

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  9. I don't know what you did to the photograph but it certainly works. Those wondrous oaks - those enormous gnarled trunks - thank goodness, no one chopped them down. Sometimes people do do the right thing.

    Outstanding photo and commentary. Perhaps I'd even use that American word I never use - awesome!

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  10. I don't know what you did to the photo either Chucker, but I think you should go back and undo it! (IMHPO)

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  11. @Richard.....you're right, but the original is even worse! What can a chap do? And don't suggest "not posting it". I held it back for weeks.

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  12. makes us wonder what will be still standing in 700 years time.

    The morning post has just arrived here (2.30pm)

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  13. Wow, great story almost unbelievable.

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