MerricksDad's Weapon-A-Day

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

Here is a black hills spruce from today. I took this with the magenta posterboard in full sun, nearly directly overhead (although it is 3pm, that dang thing anyway). The pink comes away better than the white, but still grabs a bit of the darker branch parts. So I played with the mask brightness and contrast to give a bit back, which is where the dark border comes from on the branch. I think it looks pretty good, but kinda dried out. The sun is messing with the reflective colors in the camera, so I will definitely be taking shots only during overcast times, or early in the morning.

 

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

The best part was that magenta shadows are still magenta hue. This makes it hugely easier to separate shadows than gray shadows on a white background. However, at some points, the magenta shadow does take on a perfectly shared RGB value, especially when the shadow is dark, such as 17 17 17, which appeared commonly in branch shadows.

 

More testing later

 

Edit: I just checked this image against the actual tree the branch came from and about half the color of the tree foliage is missing.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_rjshae]

               

Nice. If I'm not mistaken, you can still distinguish the spring growths at the tips. Some of the ends have a bit of a yellow tinge though.

 

Is there any hope of including a cedar in your set? My favorite tree, all told. '>

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

We have many red cedar here and white cedar, juniperus virginiana and thuja occidentalis respectively. Are those the cedar you mean, or do you mean cedar more closely related to larch, such as cedrus deodara, cedrus libani, or cedrus atlantica? I can get pictures of young cedrus atlantica at our local garden stores, but the rest I do not know of source for. I could fake it with various larix species made blue.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

And the yellow tinge is caused by me removing the magenta color probably caused by light bending around the needle. I toned down the red but it could use some green added to cover the sickly look.

 

I shouldn't have that issue in mornings or during overcast times. I am hoping our cloud cover comes back but I don't know when that will be. It didn't make it back until last night, and I missed my chance to shoot this morning. It would have been perfect lighting for 4 hours.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_3RavensMore]

               

If you say there is something wrong with your latest images, I'll believe you, but to me it looks like a typical spruce in mid august around here.  As a NWN tree it looks fantastic.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

Yeah, I agree it looks good, and the images can certainly be useful, but this is a mid-spring shot and the color should be vibrant. The difference between the new growth and the old growth is huge in real life, but the washing-out dulls the difference.


A few weeks ago the tips were encased in hot pink baggies. I should have gotten a picture of that. It was like the spruce had roses on it....Next year!

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               

Cedrus deodara is super common.

 

Also do not forget Calocedrus decurrens (incense cedar) or Thuja plicata (western red cedar). '> I gotta stick up for the west.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_rjshae]

               

We have many red cedar here and white cedar, juniperus virginiana and thuja occidentalis respectively. Are those the cedar you mean, or do you mean cedar more closely related to larch, such as cedrus deodara, cedrus libani, or cedrus atlantica? I can get pictures of young cedrus atlantica at our local garden stores, but the rest I do not know of source for. I could fake it with various larix species made blue.

 

The type we have here in the northwest are the western red cedar, which aren't actually true cedars at all. But I like their look and the strong scent that comes from working the wood, which is quite pleasant.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

I've got non of those here. But I do have wichita blue juniper at a church about a mile away, as well as a dwarf specimen of Chamaecyparis obtusa I put in near my front door.

 

On the property we have about 20 different spruce types, of which about 2/3 are weeping varieties. There are a ton of the white cedar all over the property. Just off property we have a few firs and some wild red cedar, from baby to 30 year olds.

 

About a mile away, and older woman has a 100 year old Metasequoia glyptostroboidesin her front yard. I just realized she had it last summer. You can't see it until you are under it.

 

Then we've also got a ton of red pine, white pine, and possibly whitebark pine added as specimen trees here and there.

 

I'm trying to record where I need to travel around town to get the most color and shape variety for all these pines.

 

Edit:

 

oops, cant forget the hemlock and various yew species, especially the really old ones on MSU campus.

 

End Edit:

 

So for non-pines, I want to do the following:

 

Red Maple

Norway Maple

Sugar Maple

Silver Maple

Box Elder

Sycamore

Linden (wild and townie varieties)

Laurel Oak

Red Oak

White Oak

Bur Oak

Pin Oak

White Mulberry

Various Birch

Various Poplar

Black Locust

Various Cherry

Various Apple

Honey Locust

Mountain Ash

Black Ash

Forsythia (3 leaflet and single leaflet)

Lilac (so many colors out right now)

Dwarf Lilac

White Ash

Beech

Butternut

Black Walnut

Catalpa

Horse Chestnut

Flowering Dogwood (wild)

Flowering Dogwood (florida, ornamental)

Red Dogwood

Silky Blue Dogwood

Elm

Alder

Chokecherry

Buckthorn

Hickory

Hornbeam

Coffee tree

Prickly Ash

Sassafras

Redbud

Sumac (staghorn and smooth)

Tulip poplar

Black willow

White willow

Euonymous (and wintercreeper ground cover variety)

Boxwood

European Privet

Hawthorn

Witchhazel

Viburnum (three species, maybe 4)

Mock orange (unless the owner killed it)

Chokeberry

Holly

Purple Ninebark

Honeysuckle (with berry shots from at least 3 different types)

Gum (maybe)

Serviceberry

Paw Paw (if lucky)

Buffalo berry and/or autumn olive

Tree form st. johns wort

 

Edit:


Adding the following

 

Grape Vine

Magnolia

Spirea (multiple colors)

Sorbus (white berry)

Hydrangea

Berberis (green and purple)

Roses (various)

Chaenomeles

White Spirea (which I didn't know was even a spirea)

Campsis

Weigela

Robinia (false acacia)

 

 

End Edit

 

Oh and that giant ginko in the park, and the babies they populated the next town over with

 

And over by our ice cream store there is something with an oak leaf (deeply cut) with maple spinners on it. A similar but different species is on the MSU campus, which also has three different gardens I need to go to so I can get some non-native species.

 

This is going to be a fun year! And that is just trees!

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

Two years ago I boiled the leaves and root wood of thuja to get the oil out of it. I ended up with a pleasant smelling water, with only about a thimble worth of oil. It made the house nice and fresh though. I processed probably 10 lbs of leaf and a little of the root in total. I probably won't do it again because of the potential to muck up my house with all the steam coming from messy outdoor foliage. But it was a fun experiment.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_rjshae]

               

The European Privet should be useful for hedge rows.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_3RavensMore]

               

 

So for non-pines, I want to do the following:

 

Red Maple

Norway Maple

Sugar Maple

Silver Maple

Box Elder

Sycamore

Linden (wild and townie varieties)

Laurel Oak

Red Oak

White Oak

Bur Oak

Pin Oak

White Mulberry

Various Birch

Various Poplar

Black Locust

Various Cherry

Various Apple

Honey Locust

Mountain Ash

Black Ash

Forsythia (3 leaflet and single leaflet)

Lilac (so many colors out right now)

Dwarf Lilac

White Ash

Beech

Butternut

Black Walnut

Catalpa

Horse Chestnut

Flowering Dogwood (wild)

Flowering Dogwood (florida, ornamental)

Red Dogwood

Silky Blue Dogwood

Elm

Alder

Chokecherry

Buckthorn

Hickory

Hornbeam

Coffee tree

Prickly Ash

Sassafras

Redbud

Sumac (staghorn and smooth)

Tulip poplar

Black willow

White willow

Euonymous (and wintercreeper ground cover variety)

Boxwood

European Privet

Hawthorn

Witchhazel

Viburnum (three species, maybe 4)

Mock orange (unless the owner killed it)

Chokeberry

Holly

Purple Ninebark

Honeysuckle (with berry shots from at least 3 different types)

Gum (maybe)

Serviceberry

Paw Paw (if lucky)

Buffalo berry and/or autumn olive

Tree form st. johns wort

 

 

 

I've a whole host of dryads here that will love you...

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

If I lived just a bit further west, say a few thousand miles, I would have a lot more species I could shoot.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               

I'm a terrible photographer, but maybe I can help.

 

Some that I like and might be able to get good photos for

California Bay

 

Coastal Redwood