Making a tree trunk portrait such as “Dawn Redwood” can be a bit of a challenge. In the process I take a series of photos walking around the tree. Step, shoot, step, shoot, step, shoot…. keeping the same camera elevation and distance from the tree. Each single shot must be cropped to a narrow rectangle to avoid too much distortion and then merged by hand to create a strip that is then wrapped into a circle making the ends meet.

The initial tree series was made for a biotech company that wanted trees from around the world. I saved on air travel by shooting the tree collection at the Harvard Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain, Boston.

Dawn Redwood

Dawn Redwood

Single shot

Single shot

Photo edit and merge

Photo edit and merge