“Like the welcome of a warm fire, the beech trees glow in winter’s sunlight” – Ed Lehming

The wonder of beech trees keeps my attention. As I review recent images, they always make me look twice. In this ‘re-imagined’ image, a particularly bright beech dominates the scene. What I have found most interesting, apart from the fact that beech hold most of their leaves all winter long, is the diversity in pigmentation. Those shown here are thick leaved with a deep copper colour while others, in close proximity, are wispy and a faded cream colour, almost bleached looking and tattered.

Here, bright morning sunlight makes the overhanging tenacious oak leaves really ‘pop’ in competition with the beech leaves below them. Yes, even some of the oaks hang onto their foliage well into winter if the conditions are right.

As I’ve mentioned before, there is such a delight in this bright colouration in the depths of winter. What I find most astounding is that I rarely noticed them until a few years ago, when I spent more time on the forest trails. I’m wondering if it’s simply because I was not paying particular attention to my surroundings or if the profusion of beech is some recent element of the forest’s evolution. I’ll have to reference back to photos I made many years ago to verify that.

In any case, the bright orange is such a welcome sight every time I enter the forest, be it next to the trail or some distant grove in a distant valley, their effect on me is always the same.

iPhone 12 Pro @ 4.2 mm
1/950 sec, f/1.6, ISO 32