rose petals – Slight Clutter. It really, really does capture who I am on so many levels. I’ve always found it difficult to settle in somewhere, to plant my flag and say “this is my spot, this is who I am and this is how I will allow you to define me.” I’ve been everything and everybody in my life — the social butterfly, the solitary enigma, the bubbly every-girl, the more introspective non-conformist, the savvy sensualist, the insecure nobody/everybody. I’ve had so many incarnations that I sometimes think it is my very state of transition that defines me best. And that state of transition is illustrated perfectly by my choices when it comes to photography…likely because my “choices” are nothing more than a reflection of my mood, of “where I am” in the grand scheme of things.

There are some constants in my life, though. My love for my family, of course, comes to mind. My compassion for an underdog and my affection for furry creatures. Then…there’s my love of all things arboreal. When I’m happy, I want to photograph trees. When I’m sad, I want to photograph trees. When I’m experimenting with texture layers, I want to photograph trees. When I’m feeling like a photography purist, I want to photograph trees. Whether a dense forest or a solitary tree, whether a riverbed of cypress or simply the limb of an oak, I’m drawn to it…always…fully.

Rose Petals is just one of probably hundreds of tree photos that I took this year. It came in at #10 for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it shows how much one can bastardize an image of a tree – through cropping, through texture, through color manipulation – and still, still find comfort in the single, reassuring truth…no matter the color of the leaves, the arch of the branches, the height of the apex, or the proximity to others, a tree is still a tree…in all of its incarnations.

Two other tree photos that I really liked this year, but that missed the top 10 are one tree and tree song.