Sunday 16 March 2014

Arizona Skyamores

One of the unexpected pleasures of my trip to Arizona was seeing native trees in their bare branched, winter state.  The vast majority of native trees in Australia do not shed their leaves in autumn - so there is much less variation between seasons.  Many of out street trees are from the Northern Hemisphere - oaks and such like - so the trees that change are visitors from foreign lands.

At Montezuma Castle (I still flinch when I write that!) there were wonderful stands of Arizona Sycamores - wonderful pale trees against the sky and the rocks.  As soon as I saw them I knew that I would render the images I took as black and white, rather than colour.



The bark of these trees looked a lot like some of the gum trees at home - patch worked with layers.  You can also see here the bark has been rubbed smooth by hundreds of fingers and hands.  These patches form "soft" looking sections within the image - but thats how the tree looked.  It was as if these were special places that attached more attention that the rest of the tree.  

A sat on a wall near the tree and just as I suspected, people who walked past reached out to touch the tree.  I actually wondered if they were all aware that they were doing it.

You can find more marco shots at Macro Monday 2 and I Heart Macro.

20 comments:

  1. a great camouflage image in the last. :)

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  2. The bark is lovely.
    We have 4 huge Sycamores at the house. Washington types I guess. Beautiful trees though.
    How do you like Arizona so far??
    MB

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  3. Great macro shot of bark of the tree ~ great texture ~ xxx

    artmusedog and carol

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  4. Beautiful patterns in the bark. It looks good in b & w.

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  5. I think I would have to touch also. Great shots and they do look great in b/w.

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  6. I love your photo of the tree bark. Nice shot! Thanks for the blog visit.

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  7. I remember seeing these trees at Montezuma's Castle. We don't have many of them where I live either. I love the mottled shades.

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  8. We had sycamore trees in our yard where I grew up. I loved the peeling bark. Though right now, I would really love to see a few green leaves!

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  9. lovely to see up close - sounded like a great place to visit Stewart. Tree butts are fascinating!

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  10. Do I detecta little PINEING for the old country ;-)
    All the best Stewart, Gordon.

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  11. I love sycamores - we used to have a huge sycamore tree in the yard when I was a little boy. Good times!

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  12. I like these! B&W has its own beauty.

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  13. I have two sycamores in my front yard, and they look as cool naked in the winter as they do magnificent full of leaves in the summer. They certainly stand out among all the oak down here in Florida.

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  14. It never fails to amaze me when nature pictures look so good in black and white. Really shows the texture -- and yeah, made me want to touch!

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  15. Lovely picture of beautiful species of tree.

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  16. I'm a huge fan of black and white! These are beautiful!

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  17. Ah the Sycamore tree, one of my favorites. I have one I go sit under at a park by Montezumas Well when I over stress. The photos are wonderful in B&W.

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  18. Pretty bark! The bark is often the most interesting aspect of trees.

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