Paul Glover, Photographer

Slow down. Enjoy the view.

The Lives of Trees

A six-frame project which explores the life of trees from youth to death.

Where I live in the southwest of Virginia, near where the panhandle is attached to the pan, everything is trees. Okay, also mountains. But mostly trees.

It is, very fundamentally, impossible to get away from them. I can drive 2 hours in any direction and guess what? Trees.

I’m not mad about that, by the way. Trees make fascinating subjects for photography, and they also tend to hold still while you figure out how best to compose them into a frame.

This particular project is a collection of tree photos which together represent a sort of lifecycle of trees, from young sapling through to dead and fallen.

A young pine tree stands on the edge of a forested mountainside.
A young pine tree stands on the edge of a forested mountainside.
The bare branches of winter begin to give way to the new growth of spring.
The bare branches of winter begin to give way to the new growth of spring.
Blue skies and full canopies.
Blue skies and full canopies.
Freshly fallen leaves carpet the ground, while those still holding on turn a brighter shade of orange.
Freshly fallen leaves carpet the ground, while those still holding on turn a brighter shade of orange.
The root of a dead tree clings stubbornly to the earth that once sustained it.
The root of a dead tree clings stubbornly to the earth that once sustained it.
A fallen tree lies at rest, surrounded by flowers, next to the river.
A fallen tree lies at rest, surrounded by flowers, next to the river.