Large Format Photography Australia

Sun-bleached Stumps, Charlotte Pass
Gelatin-silver photograph on Fomabrom Variant III VC FB photographic paper, image size 19.6cm X 24.4cm, from a 8x10 Fomapan 200 negative exposed in a Tachihara 810HD triple extension field view camera fitted with a Nikkor-W 210mm f5.6 lens.
These stumps are iron hard and resistant to weather. There are no termites at this cold altitude and rots and fungi work very slowly indeed. I first saw this skeletal group more than 30 years ago and it has scarcely changed; even in the small details.

A wonderful image, Maris. These beautiful old snow gums retain their dignity and beauty long into death. The wood has weathered to a hard sheen that's somewhat reflective and which you've captured beautifully. It's difficult to know the age of these trees at death without counting growth rings, but 100 years wouldn't surprise me.

Very nice one there Maris, as Barry said, they could be centuries old and that is before they died.

210mm is pretty tight, you must have used a bit of movement going on the top LH dark curve on the image. Always a trade off, wide angle and a smidgeon of movement or if not quite centred; don't ask how I know.

Mick.

Thanks Barry. Sometimes I think Snow Gums are eternal trees. This collection of stumps, a ranger tells me, is the result of a tree loaded up with snow and ice being hit by an intense blizzard. The overweight branches break off and the trunk is overturned and dies. But in the middle of the group is a resurrection, a replacement for the previous tree. The old original lignotuber has sent up a small green bush that, given a couple of hundred years and no fires, will be a splendid Snow Gum.

You are not wrong Mick. I ran out of camera swing movements trying to chase the diagonal front to back Scheimpflug plane. The cut-off in the lower right of the ground glass is exactly where it is hard to see. My Nikkor-W 210mm lens is the old one with the 77mm front so I trust it on 8x10 but twist it too far and it fails. Excuses, excuses.

Such relaxed yet dignified repose as these spectacular transition their stature and their purpose. They were just laying about waitingfor you to find them and amplify their relevance in the world.