Ailanthus

Ailanthus altissima, Ailanthus glandulosa, Tree of Heaven, Chinese Sumac

Height 50-75 feet with trunk diameter 2-3 feet.

Native to China.

Soft, weak wood, light brownish yellow.

Grows rapidly. Endures urban conditions well.

Tree Photography

It is fortunate for us who are not painters that the photographic camera offers a means of recording the pictures as we find them. The ground glass or the "finder" on the camera or even an empty frame held at varying distances from the eye will separate for us the view from its surroundings. Only experience, however, will show what results to expect in the developed picture. In general better effects will be obtained from near views or from distant views with prominent features in the foreground.

The condition and position of the sunlight are of prime importance in the photographing of trees. Full light is desirable and the sun should be somewhat behind and considerably to one side of the camera. If light comes from behind the tree a mere silhouette of the branching is obtained, while if the light is directly back of the camera the trunk and crown appear flat from lack of contrasts. When one side of the trunk, as viewed from the camera, appears dark and the other side in direct sunlight, all the branches of the tree in the finished picture, as well as the trunk, will appear solid. The position of the light is of even more importance in photographing the bark. Depressions and ridges seem to disappear when the light shines directly against them and a somewhat lateral illumination is therefore necessary to bring out the details of the bark sculpturing.

The position of the camera must also be considered. A tree viewed from below appears different from the same tree viewed on the level and from a distance. Habit views are often taken too near the trees. Moreover, the camera is generally placed below the usual eye level and this position tends to give the tree an unnatural appearance. It is generally useless to attempt to show much detail in the method of branching of an individual tree if the crown cannot be seen clear above the sky line. A covering of snow, however, may offer as good a background as the sky and allow a tree to be photographed against a hillside where otherwise a satisfactory photograh would not be possible . . . A white sheet held behind the trunk may afford an artificial background for a bark photograph. Generally this is not necessary since bark photographs are taken at close range and the surrounding objects are mostly out of focus. If need be, the background can be painted out on the negative. For habit pictures in sunlight we have found a No. 16 stop and 1/25-1/20 second exposure to give good results when the wind will allow so long an exposure. For bark pictures the smallest stop and a proportionately longer exposure, say 1/2 to 1 second, will give the greater detail desired in such pictures.

To one interested in botany as an avocation, trees furnish an especially available subject for outdoor study. They are accessible in city or in country, in winter or in summer. Their size renders them conspicuous. They can accordingly be studied from a carriage, an automobile, or a rapidly moving train, and this way much learned that would be impossible to discover if the study were confined to a single locality or if the student were dealing with smaller forms.

-- Blakeslee and Jarvis 1939:18-19.