Bluebird skies made for great hiking yesterday, but good light was hard to come by. This little beech tree made me happy, though:




I'm still getting a feel for all of my equipment, but one standout so far has been the Benbo tripod that Mole was kind enough to point me toward--this shot I took was on a slope so steep I had to lie down to see through the view finder, but tripod itself was quick to deploy and rock solid.

[tessfully]

I adore Beech Tree images, and this one is unique and artistically rendered. Nice work!

[CreationBear]

Thanks, Tess...the original image is a bit lighter; somehow Flickr and this site seems to gobble up a stop or two along the way.

At any rate, beeches in winter are some of my favorite trees, though we don't have a lot of those big, mature stands that European photographers seem to make such good use of. I will have to get used to getting out at the crack of dawn to stalk them, though--the least breath of wind really gets their leaves all aquiver.

[slowpez]

I always think of them as the ghosts of the forests. The seem so ethereal and fleeting. What is Fagus by the way?

[CreationBear]

What is Fagus

Glad to see another fan of beeches..."ghostly" is a very good adjective! To answer your question, though, "Fagus" is just the genus name for all beech species, the way you might use "Quercus" as shorthand for oaks or "Betula" for birches. This one was where you'd expect to find it--in a cove hardwood "association" at the base of Sugarland Mountain--but there are also a lot of "beech gaps" along the crests of the higher ridges that separate stands of (much larger) spruce and fir trees.