Over the years I have tried very hard with my tree recognition skills. For a long time I had a lovely copy of The Observers’ Book Of Trees and several others too and I even took them on my walks with me but, try as I might, I simply could not keep in my head the details I needed to sort out even the most common types. It wasn’t only trees either: I had books on birds, butterflies, shrubs, clouds and even grasses. At times I was carrying half a library with me on my rambles. But my head just became a kaleidoscope of beaks, wings, leaves and branches. It was very stressful.
When I moved to Manchester and my new urban life I got rid of nearly all of my books and these nature volumes went too. Goodbye sylvan tranquillity; hello urban grit.
All of which is a bit of a lengthy prelude to explaining why, when I walked across Northumbria this summer I was not altogether sure what trees I was taking photos of. There wasn’t a lot else to snap. I don’t really do your standard landscape. And no disrespect to Mrs Barker but after nearly forty years of peaceful coexistence I think we have just about reached mutual exhaustion photographically. Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe we are not.
So to give myself a challenge I decided to concentrate on trees and took one a day.
Everyone recognises the hawthorn, don’t they? There is something indomitable about their twisting growth pattern.
And the birch - such a lively tree. We had two of these in the back garden of our old house and when the wind and sun caught the leaves the reflected light would dance around the back rooms.
Hmmmm. I kind of had it my mind that these were poplar but now I’m not so sure.
And birch, birch, birch.
I read somewhere that you will take more photos if you walk round with a camera in your hand than if the camera is slung round your neck. And either of those two will give you more photos than if you walk around with the camera in your bag. But walking ninety odd miles with a camera in my hand or round my neck is just not practical. Especially with the mighty Hasselblad which weighs in at around four pounds. The truth is, I think, that if you are doing serious distances in all weathers then the photography is not going to take priority. But one or two shots a day is not only doable but is an excuse for a break and can make for an interesting mini-project: kissing gates; fence posts; cows’ eyes; signposts; gravestones; footbridges; pylons. They are all there for the taking.