View allAll Photos Tagged treebeard
hehe, I crack myself up.
A great while back a had seen some really great photo compilations (or collages) that some folks did that featured different kinds of ice, rocks, leaves, etc. and I just thought that was such a cool way to show the different textures, colors, and shapes of a subject. The last few weeks during my soggy walks I had the idea of doing something similar using moss and lichen that I see everyday. So I began a hunt for a variety of vegetation. Between some photos I'd taken in the past and the new ones, I came up with quite the collection. John helped me make a basic collage using InDesign, and I went with just 9 (man it was hard to choose what to use first) varieties for now. I'll get a little creative with the layout with my next project. I have no idea what these specimens are called, and I am not very good at determining the species of plants. If someone out there knows you are more than welcome to educate us.
Otherwise I will entertain you further with the names I have given them based on how they look to me. Going in a left to right fashion starting from the top left:
1. The feathered fern
2. Medusa's hair
3. Flowing seaweed
4. The tiny chalice
5. Treebeard
6. Miniature trees
7. Layered carpet
8. Spiky tufts
9. Coral reef
“And it’s my birthday too!” I added needlessly but truthfully. Even I could hear how pathetic that sounded as the worlds tumbled uncontrollably from my mouth. People need to know it’s your special day when you’re seven, not in your late fifties. I was only adding to what was already probably a gentle sense of concern in the eyes of my rescuers, all of whom were decades younger than me. “What a strange, hapless old man,” they probably thought, and were only prevented from saying by their own politeness. “Happy birthday!” came a small volley in response. “It would have been a shame to get lost on your birthday.” Until that moment I’d almost forgotten what day it was – and staggering to a lonely death in plunging temperatures at an altitude of over eleven hundred metres above sea level didn’t seem the best way to mark the occasion.
Ten minutes earlier, I was confident I’d find the way back to the car easily enough; despite it having disappeared completely from view three hours beforehand, I’d only wandered two or three hundred metres at most. Five minutes after this, I was approaching the early stages of panic. What light there was had started to fade as the thick fog that hung over every inch of my world darkened slightly, giving me no indication of exactly where I was. There was no discernable path that I could see. I was in no doubt that I’d walked past the big lone tree earlier, but I couldn’t remember exactly where from. I was sure I’d had the fence to my left, but now there was more than one fence to choose from. Maybe it had been on my right side after all? I had passed a group of three small benches, but now they appeared to have been removed by the local council while I’d roamed the trees, pointing my camera at every shape that loomed out of the fog and into the viewfinder. While the five layers I was wearing and the continual wandering around had stopped me getting cold, Bill Bryson’s tales of hypothermia induced insanity in “A Walk in the Woods” appeared at the forefront of my mind. If I didn’t find the car, or the road before darkness fell, I was going to be in trouble. Again, I studied my phone; there’s a place at home where I always get lost and where Google Maps always sets me right again – but we weren’t in Ladock Wood at the moment and the location service on my phone was still firmly of the opinion that I was at the bottom of the mountain in Ribeira da Janela. And why had I left my head torch in the top flap of the suitcase? Hadn’t I specifically brought it on this holiday for these moments I’d spend blundering around in the dark? The truth was we’d only gone a little way up the hill six hours earlier for a pastel da nata and a cup of coffee in the café that had been recommended to us. The rest had crept upon us, slowly and certainly as we headed further up the mountainside and disappeared into the mist, so far in fact that Fanal became the obvious destination.
And what a destination it was too for that matter. Under its white shroud it delivered everything and more that I’d hoped for. Six hundred year old Laurel trees, each of them distinct from the others, each of them full of character, shaped and bent by the elements over time. Every one of them cloaked in gowns of dark moss and an abundance of tiny green ferns. Like the proverbial seven year old in the sweet shop I lost all sense of time and meaning as I immersed myself in a landscape like none I’d ever seen before. An intimate and compact landscape where only what was visible existed, and what I couldn’t see was irrelevant. Specimens such as Treebeard here seemed as though they might uproot themselves at any time and tread away into the fog to converse with old friends. Over the nearly eight years since photography became something more than holiday snaps, a handful of places that I’d probably never otherwise thought of visiting had stood out in my mind as the memorable ones, and now Fanal Forest had crashed the party and joined the A list. I can only wonder at what the fog was hiding from me; what I might have seen on a clear day. Somewhere nearby there’s a lake, but for now it remained undiscovered somewhere down the slope. It begs me to return - I like having reasons to go back to places.
But as I took my last shots and eventually persuaded myself that it really was time to go and find Ali, who was waiting in the car with the novel she’d picked up from the shelf in the house where we were staying, I realised that I wasn’t quite sure which way I’d come. With the shroud tightening around me, the knot of woodland between the car and I had disappeared completely, and the big lone tree was the only marker that I was certain of. If I could find the road I’d be ok – it would just be a case of walking up the hill a bit – but what I wasn’t sure of, was whether there were any nasty surprises lying in wait. Madeira is full of enormous vertical cliffs and I wasn’t certain of what lay out of sight. I set out from the big tree a second time, then a third and a fourth, before returning to what I knew. And then I saw the figures, grey shapes moving through the landscape ahead of me – five of them chattering away happily to each other; very probably the group I’d silently cursed an hour earlier as they’d posed for selfies in the middle of the composition I was eyeing up. With no idea what language I was listening to, I raced along behind them, calling out to my unknowing saviours.
We were in a car park now. Not the one we’d pulled up at earlier in the day, but at least I now knew where the road was, and finding my way back was assured. There’s only one road up here after all. I began to walk along it but the rescuers called out through the darkness, insisting they drive me back to my car. One American among them, the rest were from Slovenia, a country full of mountains. I guessed they knew what they were about in a place such as this then. I was glad I’d found them – full of kindness and friendship. Within minutes I had been returned to my car, where Ali had given up reading and begun to wonder whether she’d ever see me again. I thanked my new friends gushingly and waved until their cars disappeared down the track into the approaching night. Maybe I was being melodramatic – I’d probably have found my way back eventually, but for fleeting moments I was definitely beginning to get worried. As birthdays go in middle age, it had been the most memorable one in years; a bit of a close shave, something that I hope never happens to Treebeard here - he'd lose something of himself I'm sure you'll agree.
A few days later we returned to Fanal after walking the nearby Levada do Risco, where it had been clear and sunny. Again, ending up here was inevitable, and this time we thought we would have very different conditions. Yet as we crept down the slope, glimpsing the one and only cloud inversion of our fortnight through the windscreen at a spot with nowhere to stop as we did, the fog rolled in again. This time I parked in the big car park and made certain of my journey into the mystical forest. This time I took photographs on my phone to show me the way back. This time I tore myself away before darkness fell, and I found the car without the help of a team of mountain guides.
“Here is a town to shame the world,” wrote William L Shirer of Ljubljana, the Slovenian capital in March 1937. “It is full of statues and not one of them a soldier. Only poets and thinkers have been so honoured.” It was a paragraph that struck me profoundly and stayed with me when I read it, and ever since I did so nearly twenty years ago, I resolved to one day visit Slovenia. Maybe it’s time now. Maybe I’ll watch my step in the mountains and make sure I’ve packed my bivvy bag.
I hope you have a lovely weekend, and I hope for your own wellbeing you meet some Slovenians along the way to guide you if you're in the hills lost in fog.
A tree with legs! It is thought that this ancient tree - an oak planted during the reign of Henry Vlll - inspired the legendary character Treebeard in JRR Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings. Tolkien lived nearby at the time and would walk these woods.
The tree is natural and has not been adapted which makes it even more amazing.
Hah - I found this little spider inside the rain gauge on our upstairs deck today! It's a more complicated rain gauge than the coffee can I used to use, as it has a small inner tube which measures hundredths of an inch and overflows into a larger outer tube which can hold up to ten inches. There's a funnel-like lid on top that directs water into the small tube. The spider seems to want to be inside and made no effort to get away when I took the lid off today. I believe it's a Jumping Spider (Salticidae), probably genus Phidippus with those reddish colors, and possibly a Johnson Jumper (Phidippus johnsoni). I've actually seen a spider inside the rain gauge before, see this photo. Maybe it's an omen of a big rain tonight? Arachtober 24. (San Marcos Pass, 24 October 2021)
“Some of my kin look just like trees now, and need something great to rouse them; and they speak only in whispers.”
― Treebeard in J.R.R. Tolkien's “The Lord Of The Rings” (The Two Towers)
for Crazy Tuesday - theme of August 13, 2019: Pareidolia
As a kid I always was looking for faces in trees ... and still do ... :)
Just for Fun: I only had my "old" K-5 with the vintage manual lens at hand - this combination I rather use for experimenting on close-ups with shallow depth of field ...
Happy Crazy Tuesday, everyone :)
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„Manche meiner Verwandten sehen jetzt ganz wie Bäume aus, und es muss schon allerhand geschehen, um sie aufzurütteln; und sie sprechen nur noch flüsternd."
- Baumbart in J.R.R. Tolkiens "Der Herr der Ringe" (Die zwei Türme) in der modernen Übersetzung von Wolfgang Krege
für die Gruppe Verrückter Dienstag - Thema: Pareidolie (das Phänomen, in Dingen und Mustern vermeintliche Gesichter und vertraute Wesen oder Gegenstände zu erkennen)
Ich suche oft nach Gesichtern in Bäumen :)
[Nur zum Spaß: nicht die beste Bildqualität, ich weiß - hatte nur meine "alte" K-5 mit manuellem vintage Objektiv bei der Hand und diese Kombination punktet eher im Nahbereich und bei Offenblende ... ]
Einen schönen Dienstag !!
Loggers did not reach the Albright Grove, providing an opportunity for hardy hikers to visit an old-growth forest in the Great Smoky Mountains.
Yes, this towering, walking, talking tree is an Ent, called Treebeard. If you are familiar with Tolkien’s 'The Lord of the Rings', you may have traveled through the forest of Fangorn, met Treebeard and then were taught to not be too hasty.
While I may have tons of Lord of the Rings memorabilia, today’s focus is on Treebeard. I only tossed in two other familiar faces (Strider and Boromir) just to take up space, for, as you can see... Treebeard is very TALL!
Pearl City, Oahu, Hawai'i
HAPPY THANKSGIVING, GANG!
This is a macro image of moss that I found on a recent hike up on Waimano Trail. Is that really moss...Treebeard lives up here.
Sony A7R III (Full Spectrum) | Sony 90mm Macro | Kolari Vision-Hot Mirror Pro 2 | Sony Flash & AK Diffuser
"I used to be anxious when the shadow lay on Mirkwood, but when it removed to Mordor, I did not trouble for awhile: Mordor is a long way away. But it seems that the wind is setting East, and the withering of all woods may be drawing near."
~Treebeard from The Lord of the Rings~
(I took the Fuji on a 10km run the other day through a grassland park with many beautiful trails. I was way out in the middle of nowhere and had to climb a small hill for this scene. I have an affinity for gnarly trees such as this. Crashed down by gravity and age. Kinda like me.) :)
-Kenna Cartwright Park, Kamloops, BC.-
"We Have A Lift Off TreeBeard!"
"Yeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhh Aaaaaaa Ttttttrreeeeeeeeeeeee Jjjjjjjjjjjjjaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiivvvvvvvvvvveee"
Had to get down in the sheep poo for this one :-)
HFF to all!
Thanks to my friend Greg for the title www.flickr.com/photos/45025296@N08
In Fangorn the Hobbits meet someone they did not expect, the ent Treebeard.
A great power has been sleeping here for many long years and the coming of Merry and Pippin will be like the falling of small stones that starts an avalanche in the mountains.
After the Balrog, Treebeard is the next big figure I could build for my LotR series. The roots and branches made him an interesting challenge that I really enjoyed! Some unusual part usage are the parrot nose and the sausages for fingers.
We are building a LEGO Lord of the Rings vignette series:
◾Book 1: Xenomurphy
◾Book 2: Jonas Kramm
◾Book 3: Jonas Kramm
◾Book 4: Marcel V.
◾Book 5: ForlornEmpire
◾Book 6: Grant Davis
This photo was inspired by one of my contacts and great friend Lichtbildung thanks mate....Best on black.=)
"Tree? I am no tree. I am an Ent."
"Treebeard some call me."
The Lord of the Rings - "The Last March of the Ents "
Lord of the RIngs OST
Visit this location at The Shire - A homely slice of Middle Earth in Second Life
26/52
“Side? I am on nobody's side, because nobody is on my side, little orc.” - Treebeard (J.R.R. Tolkien)
listen: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M_PrJWyYZw
[On my birthday on Saturday, I went and got the fern tattoo you see pictured here. Drawn with loving delicacy by Cassie as per my specifications and then painfully scratched into my skin with a needle, this tattoo is my largest and second tattoo, and it holds a great deal of meaning and significance to me. I had the idea for it during a road trip in July down to the Redwood National Park in Cali, during which time I had a personally moving and quiet experience among the giant, ancient trees. I've never felt connected to anything or anyone quite so much as I feel connected to trees and foliage.
Living with a forest a stone's throw away in all of my various childhood homes is likely the "culprit" for feeling more attached to plants than people. I am saddened on a daily basis by the fact that people are still in denial of global warming and the consequence of our blatantly lazy and selfish actions that are speeding up the natural warming and cooling cycles of the earth. I won't rant and rave here, but I'll say it is a topic I feel strongly about, and I do feel we are each responsible on an individual level to do what we can to reduce our carbon footprints and to respect the Earth as our one and only home. We have to think about the long term, not only for our species but for *all* species.
Ferns. Tattoo. Global warming. The end.]
I visited some familiar places this morning, followed familiar routes and did some familiar things. Let's just say that some places are magical.
When I walked past this fallen tree I noticed how the trunk was pointing between it`s standing friends, it was beautifully covered in moss and surrounded by Bluebells, for the love of trees and Treebeard.
To be honest, I'm not sure what he's called as I've also read its called Treebeard. Anyhow, here he is with Castle Stalker just over his shoulder which is near the village of Appin on the West coast of Scotland.
This is one of the more unusual trees I’ve encountered. All its limbs seemed to contort every which way without much rhyme or reason.
" 'I am not going to tell you my name, not yet at any rate.' A queer half-knowing, half-humorous look came with a green flicker into his eyes. 'For one thing it would take a long while: my name is growing all the time, and I've lived a very long, long time; so my name is like a story. Real names tell you the story of things they belong to in my language, in the Old Entish as you might say. It is a lovely language, but it takes a very long time saying anything in it, because we do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a long time to say, and to listen to.' "
~Treebeard in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien~
--
I spruced up the color a little ;~)
Last of the Ents - guardian of the forest.
Hundreds of years old oak at 'Urwald', Reinhardswald.
Kamineiche im Urwald im Reinhardswald.
The dark side of the tree: www.flickr.com/photos/rschuetz/4000711956/ ;-)
This photo has been on explore: Highest position: 13 on Monday, November 11, 2013
This is a small Green Lynx Spider (Peucetia, Oxyopidae) traveling along a stem of native Telegraph Weed (Heterotheca grandiflora, Asteraceae). This might be the same spider as I showed a week ago in this photo - at least I found it in the same group of plants. If it is the same, it's been growing! My [Next] photo is another shot of the same spider taken an hour later as I came back on my walk. Arachtober 21. (San Marcos Pass, 21 October 2017)
One of the oldest Castanea Sativa of Val Grande, generous in chestnuts this autumn, here portrayed with my daughters for size comparison. It has a strong, mild character, and I love to imagine it's the king of shepherd-trees.
Went snowshoeing up at Commonwealth Basin last night, my snowshoe buddy Guinness kept me company. It's tricky to keep your tripod steady in the snow, the legs want to just spread and bend, sometimes I leave them together and just jam it down into the snow, which can still be unstable. Any suggestions on this problem? It was certainly a wonderful evening out by myself with my dog and camera, forgot my single malt though...
Note: This is the first photo I have that has reached 1000 views, thanks to everyone that has viewed and commented on my work.
Treebeard marching to Isengard
Prà Grande, Schio (Vicenza)
Prealpi Vicentine Silhouette, Veneto Italy
Dicembre 2008 - Canon EOS 300 (Analogic)
Pol Sberzè Jewels * Made in Italy
A couple of hand-carved walking sticks, one with a "green man" handle and the other with a fish handle. In The Royal Oak, Millthorpe, Derbyshire.
derelict 1960s vintage chevy with a tree growing up thru the vacant engine compartment.
nikon D7000 + nikkor 10-24mm. 60 second exposure, light painting with LED flashlight, red and blue gels. taken in a vast idaho junkyard during the "GOAT yard" night photography workshop hosted by mike hows and joe reed.