Rootbound

Rootbound along the Rim Trail toward Upper Inspiration Point
Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

I’ll bet this is one of the most-photographed trees along the Rim Trail. One photographer on Flickr remarked he spent 4 hours photographing the tree/roots. Um, I did not spend that long and can’t remember the last time I stood in one place for 4 hours photographing the same stationary object. Perhaps he did exaggerate a little, but maybe not. Anyway, this tree (and others that you can find along the Rim Trail and within Bryce Amphitheater) are great examples of erosion processes there in the park. Those exposed roots were – at some point in time – once covered with soil until it was all eroded away. And yet, there stands the tree, continuing to keep a toe-hold to its survival.

The key to getting a clear shot of both tree and background is to either take two shots – one focusing on just the tree and the other focusing on the background – and blend them together (aka “focus stack”) or take a wide-angle shot and then crop to taste, which is what I did, since I was handholding the camera.