This past weekend I spent a night observing on Keck, and the weekend prior my parents were in Hilo, so it's been something of a busy month for me with less downtime than usual. I've got a few post ideas backing up as a result which I hope to get out before too long, and for today's post I want to get back to something that happened last month (on Tau Day, even!), a visit to the annual bonsai exhibition at the Wailoa Art Center.
There was a lot of impressive topiary on display, and while walking around to see and photograph it one thing I saw there stuck with me: a little placard that said something like, “Bonsai is not about making a big tree small, but about making a small tree look big.” It inspired me to look in a different way while taking pictures; instead of simply snapping a shot from my vantage point (usually looking down on a piece), I tried taking a few shots as if from the ground looking up at a normal-sized tree.
This one benefited from the light pouring in on it from above, which lit it up in a striking manner. I went about an hour before it closed in the late afternoon, since I was finally feeling better that day after being sick with COVID-19 the entire week (for the third confirmed [and probably sixth overall] time). The way the leaves are illuminated from above reminds me of working in the forest, especially since this month we started a data-collection protocol involving measuring the crowns and canopies of trees (with a lot of associated looking upwards, usually right into the Sun overhead).
And while this one isn't that little – it's probably a good two feet high – a low angle helps it look even larger. Cut out the background and you could fit this tree in a landscape with little difficulty (other than the fact that I cropped the edges out; whoops).
Anyway, I've got some more post ideas and projects in the works that I just haven't had the time or mental energy to get out yet, but with this weekend hopefully going back to normal I might be able to make some progress on that front. We'll see! A hui hou!
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