This lovely arbutus appears to have srood alone in the middle of some arctic tundra or whatever, but the reality of the thing is it was a backyard tree in my neighbourhood here on Vancouver Island, Canada. The thing was always nice to look at and was great for birders, but there was really no decent angle from which to shoot the thing - what with the surrounding trees and houses, powerlines and garbage trucks, houses and fences, and well, you know,
neighbourhood. And while you may look at this scene and think, "Yeah, snow in Canada; the sky is blue; circles are round," I live in one of the very few places in the country that are very little, if any, snow in the winter. This snowfall, which graciously granted me the separation from its surroundings I longed for, was but a single event in an otherwise snowless February - on the ground for but a few days, and on the leaves of the trees (those that have them, anyway - the arbutus is Canada's only broadleaf evergreen) less than that.
Thankfully, it looked like I would at least have an hour or two to capture an image, maybe a little longer. So, I sauntered to the only place on the property where I knew I could set up at a good angle to get in all the food and cut out all the other, i.e. the small, cordoned-off bit of patio where the bad weather had met with the aftermath of a many-years-hidden termite colony and left most of the railing in the garden below. To get my camera to the right spot without slipping off the deck and impaling myself on our retired termite farm, I manoeuvred the barbecue through the snow to the one good railing post, and stalled it in place. I then tied one leg of my tripod through the handle of the barbecue, positioned another against the vertical side of the deck, and did a half-ass tie down with the other tripod leg of the side of the barbecue using a wool sock. I was able to belly-up on the top of the barbecue to load my camera (a well-weathered 5DIV), and frange up the shot how I wanted. All that remained was to grab myself a hot cocoa while I sat in the sunroom and waited for just the right light and weather to remotely release the shutter.
However, as I strolled over to the espresso machine to make some foam for my cocoa, a truck pulled up next door,
pulling a trailer,
a trailer that was actually a chipper.
Many of the arbutus trees in the area are doing poorly as a result of the new climate we all live in, and a great many are being taken down for safety reasons. I had known that this tree was ticketed for falling, but why on earth the arborists came to do it in the snow, I'll never know.
Long story short, no cocoa. A bank of cloud had moved in off the ocean, so I couldn't just take my shot and run; no, I could only wait and hope it cleared before the saws were gassed up. I spazzed a little bit, frantically paced around the yard like an epileptic rooster, and cursed all of the gods for my bad fortune.
But apparently the gods like a little dirty talk, because the cloud cover swept up over the ridge before the tree slayers had even wielded their weapons. But, you already saw the picture before you read this, so I won't bother telling you that I got it.
But I got it.
I hadn't gotten my settings quite right, and I crowded the trees more than planned, but, hey, that's why God invented Photoshop.