Seeing trees in a new light
An ancient crack willow, in a field, in the dark. It spoke to me…
An ancient crack willow, captured in the dark using long exposures. © T. S. Clark (2023)
On my way to photograph Sherwood Forest, I planned to stop along an ancient Roman road near Coventry, to seek out this willow and photograph it in the golden evening light. I set out a little later than planned, and by the time I had arrived the sun was below the horizon, but with enough natural blue light to see where I was going. I had to walk through a couple of fields, and as it got darker on a clear night, I had to use my phone torch to see where I was going. Sheep in a neighbouring field were settling down for the night. The public pathway I was on eventually led me to the right tree, after a couple of false positives. Armed with a tripod, I was determined to get something now that I had made it this far.
The first shots on the other side of the trunk made the tree a silhouette against the fading light in the sky. When I moved around to the viewpoint you see here, I knew I could get good textures in the bark from natural, and possibly some far-off urban light. By this time it was dark, and the long exposures make it look brighter than it was. The star trails and movement in the branches give this away.
The result felt ethereal, like a part-living, magnificent being, and part ghost. Actually, a lot of the bark you see here is indeed already dead. I do not know the age of this tree, but I know it has lived for several, if not many human generations, and is still alive to this day. It felt lost, forgotten, and abandoned in this agricultural zone, not far from huge urban centres. How the landscape must have changed around it. I don’t know if it wanted to say something to me, but maybe it tried in a way I do not understand. Perhaps these images translate what it said. I wanted to learn more.