Does anyone know what this is a picture of?

Hi everyone -- I am playing with stylizing some evergreen that I took a picture of. However, I want to label it as to what it is . . . not just "evergreen." Does anyone know what the attached picture is of? (fir, spruce, pine, etc). Hope you all had a good holiday. I am beginning to build a website @ zenfolio and am so excited to finally begin to get this show on the road. Ultimately the address will be www.fromwhereshestood.com (the zenfolio will be stripped from the website address}; however, sorting out getting my registered website address pointed in the right direction by contacting the company that holds the registration and finding the right information to give them, will have to wait.

regards,

Hi Laurel,

It looks like it might be a spruce, but it's hard to tell with the photo so stylized. Try posting the original photo, instead.

Hi Martin,

Thanks . . . I'm not certain that the attached original will reveal much more detail. I took the picture on a rainy day through my car windshield -- I was enamoured by the luminosity of the light on the branches in the middle of a dark and rainy day.

Your location reminded me of where I was two years ago today . . . living in Vancouver WA and going to Church in Molino, OR. I was thinking Medford was close to Mulino, but when I looked it up on mapquest.com I saw that Mefford was almost to the southern border of Oregon and that is a long way from Mulino!!!!!.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Laurel
fromwhereshestood.zenfolio.com
lpauline@fromwhereshestood.com

Looks like the branches of a cedar tree.

Will
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada

Wow . . . a cedar tree. That is sad that I had to cut down a cedar tree. The tree was badly diseased and shortly after I took this picture I had to cut it down. I have a friend from Germany and she tells me that if you have to cut down any tree on your property in Germany you have to first get approval from a government environmental(?) official and then you have to make arrangements to replace the tree with one of equal size and importance (as in an oak tree couldn't be replaced with a scrub maple).

Laurel
fromwhereshestood.zenfolio.com
lpauline@fromwhereshestood.com

Laurel,

The law of replacing a tree with equal size is very unreasonable. Does that count if the tree dies of natural causes ie: storms, disease, old age, etc. The cost would be prohibitive if the tree was old and tall. I would hate to have plant a mature giant sequoia! How would a person in Germany afford that! How lucky are we that we live in the US.

John

Hey Laurel, its not a cedar, the light green tip are new growth from the spring, so its hard to tell from the tips, but from what I can see in the interior it look like a fir tree.

I think it is a balsam fir. I like the manipulated version.


Pete D.

Yep - it's a fir. If you are in the field and unsure if an evergreen is a spruce or a fir firmly shake its hand (branch). The spruce will bite back (sharp, stiff needles) and the fir will be glad to see you (softer needles). Pines have multiple neeedles arranged in clusters. May I suggest that you invest in some field guides; knowing your subject will take your hobby to the highest level.

It is definitely some type of fir. Here, where I live, it'd be the balsam fir, but I'm not sure what types you've got there. As well as William's excellent adivice on hand-shaking, fir needles are flat when looked at head-on, whereas spruce needles are thicker and more triangular. Another telltale is that you can clearly see the twig/branch, because fir needles grow out the sides of the twigs and do not obscure the twig itself like spruces do. Cedar needles/growth patterns are very different. And, as mentioned, the light-green tips are the beginnings of the tree's new growth for the season.

I concur on the field guides. Much better to be able to positively identify the subject for your photo.

With the way the needles appear to grow out from the branch (flat and parallel to each other) it could be a Grand Fir. Hard to tell for sure from the picture. Also could be a Douglas Fir. You don't happen to have a photograph of one of the cones do you? Or can you remember what the cones looked like? Did the cones sit on the branches and point up, or did they hang from below and point to the ground? (if they were on the bottom of the branches and pointing down then it's a Douglas fir)

Thank you everyone for your responses. (and Rod, no I thought of that too, but don't have any pictures left of the cones . . . the tree is gone).

I thought about how to remember the "hand shake" deteail and settled on soft=fur (fir) and sharp=s for spruce. I should be so impelled when it comes to remembering people's names.

Does anyone recommend a field guide series that they prefer to the Audubon series. I plan on taking your advice(s) and giving myself two New Year's presents -- the Audubon Society Field Guide to Trees and the Field Guide to wild flowers (unless your recommendations are better). I never owned the tree book (I own their rocks and birds guides) but I lent the flower book to someone I don't remember and never got it back.

And John, I appreciate your humor as per the German regulation. My understanding of the rule is that their citizens are not compelled to go out and find a 90 foot sequoia for replacement but they might be compelled to purchase a sequoia (or other long-lived, potentially tall, slow-growing tree) of reasonable size (not just a sapling). I agree that the regulation seems onerous but then Germany may not have the wide open spaces that we, in this country, are blessed with, and so need to be more protective of what they have? As for me, I am very very grateful to be living in the USA and even more particularly in the Northeast corner of the USA.

PS -- I just realized (or at least I don't know where to look) that we at Nature Photographers don't seem to have the option to see any profile information about one another(?) . . . maybe people don't want that but I find the detail very useful on other forums that I belong to.

Laurel
fromwhereshestood.zenfolio.com
lpauline@fromwhereshestood.com

Sorry Laural, I should have taken the time to look it up beforehand. Here is a helpful website to help you identify trees. http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/library/documents/treebook/index.htm

I agree it is a fir.

Will
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada

thankyou Will -- this "Trees" reference is a really great resource -- downloadable to CD for free and very reasonably priced to purchase ($6).

Laurel
fromwhereshestood.zenfolio.com
lpauline@fromwhereshestood.com

I'm thinking it's a noble fir... maybe.

Janet B

Thanks Janet,

One thing I have learned from this experience is that the next time I will have my field guide with me to know what I am photographing. Live and learn.

Laurel
lpauline@fromwhereshestood.com
http://fromwhereshestood.zenfolio.com