I realized recently, that sometime and I’m not sure exactly when, I had become especially drawn to photographing dead trees. I started looking through my photo archives and found that even a very long time ago I was photographing these fascinating subjects. On a recent trip to the Oregon Coast I came across a particularly striking tree in a forested dune that stopped me in my tracks. This stunning tree was lit by warm morning light and was drifting in and out of the fog. It was standing by itself draped in moss and was just begging to have it’s picture taken.

I spent the better part of 90 minutes watching the light interact with this relic of the forest and made 26 images of various compositions. Looking at the previews on the LCD of my camera I could see that I very possibly had some quality images with great potential and four days later started the editing process in lightroom and photoshop. Now, if you’re out there shooting jpegs you are missing out because editing a raw file can really change how you view photography. I find that developing an image from a raw file is very similar to waiting for the lab to return your film. There is some anticipation and sometimes some true disappointment and/or elation. This particular tree, as the edit was coming together, really got me to thinking. What the heck is it about dead trees? Why am I interested in them and why do I find them to be such great subjects.

Dead Trees very often simplify your composition for you. Photography in a forest is really an exercise in finding order within the chaos through subtraction and Dead trees are usually missing some limbs, have no leaves, and can be a much cleaner subject. While that is surely helpful to the photographer I don’t think that is really the reason that I think they make great subjects.

I think it’s more than that. Dead Trees are often a different color than the living as you would imagine. They are often light in color as they’ve lost their protective bark and in many cases have silvered. This process creates a subject that interacts with light entirely differently than the other trees around them and certainly can make them really jump out. That is what I saw with the tree in the dunes but again, is that really the reason I’m drawn to photographing them.

As I finished up photographing the dune tree, I tried to determine what other creature, or living thing in this world could die and then maybe 10’s of years later still be standing there. Standing upright in some cases, ready to leave an impression on anyone who might come across it. So, I’ve settled on the idea that Dead Trees are great subjects because years after death they can still have a great impact and can be a seriously impressive element within the forest.

All photographers have, at some point, been in a situation where they only have half a day or mere hours to photograph a particular location. You spend some time planning and then hope for the best conditions. When those conditions fail to materialize (and that will happen more often than not) it can be frustrating. This was exactly the case on a recent trip to Deception Pass State Park in Washington State. I knew I would have an evening on my way back from the Tulip Festival and was hoping for a great sunset and had pre-visualized a long exposure shot with the sky dressed in full epic sunset color. I was thinking milky smooth waves, wet rocks, cool swirls in the current and a classic western Washington sunset under lighting the clouds. Things were looking to be lining up perfectly. The weatherman had predicted partially cloudy skies with a chance of showers but other than that not much in the way of precipitation. As I made my way from La Conner to Deception Pass the clouds were perfectly broken allowing for rays of light to burst through. I could see the plan coming together.

I arrived at Deception Pass with plenty of time to scout a location, it was only 2pm and figured the light wouldn’t be getting truly interesting for at least 4 hours. The sun was still casting nice beams through the clouds and it was really lining up nicely. I could see that I was going to be treated with exactly what I had hoped in terms of light, color and conditions. I spent some time photographing some forest scenes among the giant trees found along the trail to the beach. Then headed out onto the shoreline where I found great drift logs, a pebble beach, and the tremendous swirls of current in the tidal water that Deception Pass is famous for.

TIme to look for a strong composition and make some test images and think about exactly what this photograph would say. Now I wait, wait for the light, wait for the reflections off the water and wait for the underside of the clouds to light up in pink, orange, magenta, or purple. Maybe it will change colors … wow, I might get 3,4, or maybe 5 different shots from this one location. This is definitely what I had envisioned and it was happening. Then, disaster struck. A thicker band of clouds started filtering in around 5pm and by 6:30pm was really muting out any sunlight. I was holding out hope but ultimately decided that mother nature had a different plan on this evening. It was time for me to shift gears.

I packed up my stuff at the beach and headed up onto a bluff and found a perfect cliff on which to set up. There were only a couple of possible compositions from this location that seemed like they might work. I tried to create a very simple image that worked with the water and muted blue/grey tones in the sky and was able to make about a dozen photographs of the scene before darkness arrived.

I like the image of a singular island surrounded by steely grey water and clouds. There is a hint of pastel orange on the horizon, but, that was the only real color the sunset gave up. It is funny that on one shoot my emotions ranged from great anticipation for succeeding in creating an image that was true to my artistic pre-visualization to great disappointment as the changing light did not do what I had hoped, and to eventual frustration that I was leaving without a quality image. Only once I got home did I see on my monitor an image that I quite like. An image that was made somewhat hastily after plans and the weather all kind of fell apart. So, the lesson learned is to just be flexible and keep an open approach to changing conditions because you definitely won’t always get what you hope for. By making the most of whatever conditions are presented, you may just go home with a quality image to add to your collection.