Guardians of the Western Shore

The arbutus tree grows in the Pacific Northwest and has a striking shape with reddish-brown wood, which is smooth, and when it peels, it reveals an olive green layer beneath. It is evergreen and apparently likes to grow in water-deficient sites along the rocky shores in this part of the world. This explains why I found so many of them while I was hiking near the ocean. They can grow very large, up to 30 meters I read and can tolerate poor soil.

Copper red

Olive green colour

I tried to get a little closer with the camera in microscope mode. The image on the screen looked washed out and did not capture the proper shade of colour.

I looked at the histogram for the tonal analysis, and it showed a right-ward distribution of tonal values, indicating that the image was overexposed.

Fortunately, the camera has a setting for exposure compensation. So, when I increased it manually one step, the image of the trunk appeared more clearly in focus.

The histogram on the screen showed a more normal distribution of values.

I have to confess that when I'm out there venturing in the wild, I go into survival mode and channel all my barbarian ancestors. The only mission I have in my mind is to put one foot after the other and reach my goal before I get nominated for a Darwin award. As far as taking pictures is concerned, fiddling with little dials, menus, levers, buttons, etc. is the farthest thing from my mind. Click, click, click. And I'm out of there.

This mad approach to photography can pose limitations, as these macro-shots clearly show. It's best to be patient, sacrifice some time, and get to know the instrument in your hands (unless a bear has just dropped from a tree then it's best to put the camera away). The only reason I even looked at the histogram visualization this time around was because I had printed out some cards with that information before I left. Having physical copies made it somehow more tangible and easier to remember.

I was very surprised that there were so many arbutus trees about. It made sense after I read that they like these type of rocky well-drained coastal soil. It's a wonderful sturdy tree that is dressed to impress.

Resource

Arbutus page by the Government of British Columbia

Images by @litguru

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