Youse read that correctly. This is not the last reminder to vote on “C” stories. It might have been clearer had I used penultimate . . . but I try to eschew arcane and brobdingnagian words when lesser words will do.

Anyway, I suspect them who had any intention of reading and then voting for their favorite story have already done so, but just in case, you can vote for them HERE as well as find links to the stories so that — you know — you can read them before you vote.

Right, done with that. Now, about trees . . . rather, one tree, but many photos of it.

I drive by this tree every time I visit the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge.

You can see it on Google Earth . . . both the refuge and the tree. If you happen to use the street view option, you’ll see it with lots of snow on the ground . . . something we didn’t have this winter.

Unfortunately, it looks a lot better in person than in the photos (even my photos) . . . unless I dress it up in B&G&W. . . .

Nope!

. . . it still looks better in person.

It’s a big tree, difficult to capture in all its splendor. Plus, it would help if I went there early morning to catch the Eastern light . . . but I got me other things to do in the mornings.

I tried a few different treatments to see if I can really show it off . . .

Because it’s so big, it’s difficult both capturing the details of it while still showing its impressive sprawl.

I call that last one my “graveyard B&G&W conversion”. Meaning, headstones look pretty good with that B&G&W treatment.

As far as color, if I want to show details of the tree by zeroing in on a given spot, it changes the lighting and how the photo gets processed . . .

I really wish someone — someone other than me — would go up there and remove the branch that mars the pattern of the branches. At first, I thought it was a broken branch . . . but no; it just done got grown badly.

I particularly like the near-white bark. Depending on the light, it really stands out.

You’ll note I tried different B&G&W conversions. I’m presenting those I thought looked the best, but there are many variations that probably would look just as good.

Here’s what else I did . . . I snapped five photos — each of a different part of the tree — and combined them into a panorama. I was concerned I’d get a lot of ghosting and artifacts from merging the photos, but Photoshop did a pretty good job of it.

Now, that doesn’t look much different from the first photo . . . but click HERE and you’ll get the full-size version (6,271 x 5,464 pixels, 12 MB). I shouldn’t have to mention it but if you have a dial-up connection, go ahead and skip clicking on the link. Also, perhaps upgrade your internet connection. If you click on it, once the file opens, you can click on the photo to zoom in and out.

You can also see all of the full-size versions of the above photos in THIS SmugMug Gallery.

What? you want to see a couple of B&G&W versions of that last photo? Why sure!

They aren’t drastically different, but different they are and I liked them both, so here they are.

Here’s the gallery of the Black & Gray & White versions . . .

And for them who prefer a bit of color . . .

I’m fairly sure we’ll see a bit more of this tree, but meanwhile . . .

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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