trying something new

[bc_steve]

clearcut logging makes for some boring and ugly landscapes. I generally try to keep it out of my photos, except because it is where I work I'm out there a lot so I decided that I would try to do something with it. It's been a bit of a challenge, but with the fall colours coming out it may get a little easier.

the bare trees in the foreground are dead lodgepole pine. The mountain pine beetle killed off 90% of the pine trees around here, and in some areas that is the specie that makes up most of the forest.

work by Steve Dinicol, on Flickr

I'm not totally happy with this one, but it is a bit of a work in progress I guess. I'd really like to get a shot that shows the scope of what's going on at a landscape level, since most people really have no idea. They don't do a lot of logging along highway corridors, within view of towns and cities, or in places frequented by tourists. Once you get away from that it is a different story. I'm not really opposed to it because they are mostly cutting down dead wood, and it keeps me working, but it is significant and I think it should be recorded. In this picture, the green patches are 5-10 year old plantations, the brown is freshly logged, and the grey patches are stands of dead pine (the original forest). The line of bright green in the foreground are trembling aspen trees.

logging by Steve Dinicol, on Flickr