There are a lot of very large beech trees in the woods behind my home that I have photographed quite often. I have always been drawn into the characteristic white branches of the older trees. Like gray hair, I see it as a sign of wisdom, life experience, and survival. I like how they retain many of their leaves well into winter, often standing out in a snow-covered forest.
Beech trees have quite a bit of folklore about them. Sometimes their smooth grey bark in the lower portions of the tree carries some human history. Unfortunately, so many people see it as the prime spot to proclaim their undying love. The wisdom of the upper branches of the tree looking downward seems to be lost on such people.
Another interesting story I read in Diana Wells’ Lives of the Trees points to how John Gerard, author of Herball, wrote in 1597 that beech shouldn’t be used for firewood indoors. He proclaims if it is burned indoors (sic) “there followes hard travell of childe and miserable deaths.” Perhaps that is why those carved relationships probably don’t last?
Photographically, I find it difficult to find one of these giant beech trees that isn’t surrounded by many others. There are usually lower trees or other dark branches obstructing a clear view of the top. This made it difficult for me to isolate this characteristic without other outside “clutter.” Fortunately, I found a good one for the image at the beginning of this post.
This second image of a younger beech tree found me experimenting with my new Nikon 24 mm f1.4 lens. This was my first outing with it in attempting to learn some of the characteristics of how this very fast lens “sees.” It didn’t take very many “test images” to see that it will quickly become one of my favorites. Although this image may not be a 4 or 5 star, it certainly does portray the soft background and sense of place that attracted me to this type of lens. So stay tuned into my blog for more adventures at f1.4!
Thanks for reading, and I appreciate your visit.
Beeches are a favorite of mine – for me the attraction is the way the saplings retain their leaves through the winter. Some drop and are prominent on new fallen snow. And the ones that stay on the sapling lose their brown color and become pale later in winter.
One of my favorite woods has a lot of beeches, mature and sapling trees – a very different place than oak or pine woods.
Mark, Beech trees are among my favorite — there’s one in our yard I enjoy often while sitting on our front porch.
I certainly look forward to seeing more results from the new 24mm f1.4 lens. Is it Christmas already? The soft bokeh in the second photo looks “sweet.” 🙂
Mine also Earl. How big is the one in your yard?
Yep, early Christmas present for me. 🙂 It will take some learning…. I am certainly accustomed to shallow DOF while with telephoto or macro, but shallow DOF when wide is certainly a new and different ballgame.
The trunk the beech tree in my yard is about 10-12″ in diameter near the base.
Well, Merry Christmas Mark! Getting something new and different, lens or whatever, so it forces new ways of looking at things is the most fun of all in my book. I look forward to seeing what you’ll do with it — something creative and beautiful I’m sure.
Well it is still quite young then! 🙂 Some of the ones in the woods behind my house are between 2-3 feet in diameter.
Certainly I will be posting some more f1.4 images, may even start a new f1.4 gallery because these images have such a distinctive look about them.