Hear The Music  Evening Light 

While exploring the back roads of Tennessee, I have discovered the trees and woodlands in this area are some of the most unique and unusual I've ever seen.  Forever entwined, this tree seen on the original Natchez Trace seems to be evidence of two souls forever joined as one, shared is their mutual struggle to overcome the obstacles of celebrating their love, not achieved in their human life, but immortilized by mother nature in the isolated beauty of the Tennessee wilderness. Forever Entwined

1, 2 and 3.
That's almost everything I managed to shot after dark, all the rest is crap. Not that these ones are too good either.
I shot the first tree picture in Norway, where the summer nights are quite short and bright and the sky almost never get completely dark.
The second tree is in the middle of the city of Dresden, Germany, while the third tree is a Libanese cedar shot in France few days ago.

If you've read any of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books you've probably heard of the Big Woods that used to cover a big chunk of Minnesota and Wisconsin (Little House in the Big Woods). There are still some remnants of the Big Woods in Minnesota.  Yesterday I went for a bike ride on the Luce Line.  I stopped a few times to hike back into the Big Woods. The leaves form a canopy so that hardly anything grows on the forest floor.  There are some beautiful large trees in the Big Woods.

This last shot is just a bonus shot of Anna taken during one of our dinners eaten outside.

A Face in the Crowd

Tulip Tree Leaves (Yellow Poplar)

Maple Leaves

Northern Trail

Spruce Candles

When I was 12 years old, in 1969, we lived in a court of two story apartments in Flushing, Queens, NYC and we played in a "field of dreams" in front of our home.  We played there all the time so grass could not grow.  When we moved out the management planted many trees and built benches so no one could play and disrupted the neighborhood.  This morning I was in the old neighborhood and drove by my childhood "field of dreams".  I couldn't resist taking these photos.  My childhood court was one of many, but the only one now, that has such beautiful weeping willows, planted 37 years ago.  The older trees in the photos, were young in 1969 and we used them as bases and outfield markers.

In awe of serendipity - The photos were taken at 7:55EST, 4:55 PST, a little before Jimmy Neutron posted the biweekly challenge.

Another tornado watch, what's new here in SouthWest Missouri? Just felt like standing on my front porch for a while and look at the sky. Then decided to take a few shots, and this was the result:
Skyline
Skyline too
 Skyline tree
Rooftop
Powerlines
Trunk
Church

____

It's been a while since I posted, work seems to get in the way.  These are from a couple weeks ago.  My trees were white with all the blooms.  Hopefully we'll have a good crop of green apples.  

Pink Blossoms
Full of Blossoms
Starting to open
Dark Pink
Apple Branch

I used the word pink to get Cherish to look  :o)  Have a great weekend Everyone!! Hope you enjoy :o)

We had another lovely day in the 60's today.
Yesterday when I was at my folks I took some pictures of the tree outside of their window.  I am not sure what kind of tree it is, so if someone recognizes it, please let me know.
Window of Blossoms
I have been watching the tiny buds coming out on this tree in front of my condos.  I don't know them either, but I know it is a small ornamental tree.
Tiny buds
Mom had to show me that her strawberries were blooming already.
strawberry blossom

I was fortunate to be able to spend last weekend with our oldest daughter in Heidelberg, Germany.  We went hiking in the hills outside Heidelberg.  They call this region of Germany the Odenwald.  The lighting was perfect in the woods.  I captured lots of pictures of the trees of the Odenwald..  My next post will show the adventures of Kazu in Heidelberg.

Trees 1
Trees 2
Trees 3
Trees 4
Trees 5
Trees 6

Here are some more random posting from my archive.  The first 3 shots are from Lake Tahoe - A wooden fence at the Stream Profile in South Tahoe - An old scraggly tree at Vikingsholm - A shot of the lake and the flag from the deck of the Tahoe Queen.  Next, a large cloud formation from my backyard.  A sailboat in San Diego.  And last, but not least the sun setting in Idyllwild, CA.

No animals were harmed in the taking of these pictures.Some Paint shop was applied to some photos to achieve a certain appearance. But most are untouched.

 I love abandoned buildings. I think there is a mystery that surrounds their existance and that intrigues me. For part of my birthday gift I have been wanting to go a bit further west in Texas to Washington County. (It made every appreciate where we live because we are close to things instead of in the middle of nowhere.  We don't have hills where we are (which is odd considering the word hill is in my street name. Go figure) And the trees don't get any unusual shapes because they aren't in the middle of nowhere to be shaped by the wind. So I found these  examples beautiful if not haunting.

I wanted to make sure we hit Independence, Texas because that is the sight of the Originial Baylor College. There is not much left except these. But I was so glad we made it out there to see them.  There wsa a magnificant tree near by that had its trunk split (it took us a while to figure it out) and the limbs nearly touched the ground although it was very much alive and verylarge! There was another tree, who's trunk had been twisted in an almost elegant pose.

Down the lonely stretch of road (there are so many actually) we passed many empty homes.   Some were in far worse disrepair than others but very interesting indeed.  We had passed this small "building" on our way to the ruins, however on the way back when we stopped and investigated it we realized it was a type of well. On the way to Chappell Hill, Texas we passed this barn.  Historic Chappell Hill has interesting buildings many of which are still in  use while others have been empty for sometime.  sometime.

Last but not least was a trip to Brenham. The buildings are interesting but I think I was spoiled because we had just left Chappell Hill which was so very interesting that nothing really matched it. However I did really like the court house.

Although we have had a mild Winter here in Chicagoland, it is still Winter... It Snowed Pines Trees

Here a few different angles that I took of the same tree as in my Sepia tree post.  I would like to try some different scenes, but time and weather just don't lend themselves to that.  
Sepia tree 1
Sepia tree 1a
Sepia tree 3
Sepia tree 3a

  I have been fascinated with the forms leafless trees present against stark winter skies for years.  No two are alike.   There seems to be an infinite number of designs and moods in these shapes.  Here is just a few shots I took during an early evening walk yesterday.branches 1 branches 2 monotone branches vertical feel bold truns

Bark and more Bark shot while walking home from the last stop, Brighton Beach .

Recently I downloaded Picassa on to my computer, and so I have been playing around with old pictures.  Here is one that I found that I really liked, and then the edited versions of it.

The Original
The Black and White
                The Highly Saturated

Which one do you like best?

---Bryan

Despite the color shown in this picture, it is actually shot in color, just at about a 5.6 f stop and full apature.  The light on the front of the trees is provided from the a porch light and the back lighting is actually a half moon with a heavy cloud cover (hince the scattering of light). Shot with the Cybershot P93A (from a tripod of course).  I was impressed with this one from a point and shoot camera.

Last weekend when I went to my sister's house it looked like a tornado had gone between her house and the neighbors.  They had decided to pull down about five trees and two of them were big oak trees.  Here are some of the shots I took:
Broken 1 Broken 2 Edge
Oak leaf
Roots 1 Roots 2
Roots 3
Take a look