One of my favourite local ash trees has lost a couple of big branches in the last couple of months, the latest was possibly during the August storms: Ellen and Francis. And, whilst it is not the biggest issue around at the moment, given the new Covid restrictions and possibly second wave, I do feel some affinity with these trees having photographed them over so many years.
The ash tree in question stands in a field off the Southwell Trail and can be viewed from the paths leading to the Hexgreave Estate. They have appeared many times in this blog, across different seasons and weather conditions. In fact, when I searched back through my photo catalogue I was surprise to find that my first image of this tree was in 2006, about a month after I had purchased my first digital SLR camera.
Before showing some of the older photographs, these are some of the records shots of the fallen branches taken in March and August of this year. This last image shows the new shape of the tree although this is a little disguised by the summer greenery:
It was interesting to look back on some old photographs of this tree which seemed to confirm that branches had actually fallen regularly over the years with a major fall at sometime between April 2017 and early 2018. I can just about make out the fallen branches in the snow - see below:
2006
When photographing in this field in recent years I have tended to focus more on another ash tree placing the fallen branch tree in the background. The first two images below, taken in 2017, are examples of this followed by some recent shots which seem to show that these compositions will still work despite the loss of the branches - a reminder, perhaps, in these strange and troubled times, that change is inevitable but life and photography carries on...
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