Sad news- the world's largest cedar has fallen

rbtree

Climbing Up
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Jun 22, 2005
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The Lake Quinault Redcedar, the world's largest, and the largest tree outside of California, has fallen. I visited it June 5 and it appears to have failed--to a 20 foot tall stump, sometime after July 7. See http://northcoastnews.com/…/quinault-big-cedar-has-fallen-t…

It's failure has been imminent for years, as the article states, and as my images show:
13403998_10208309214140748_7727609032900166317_o.jpg


13391630_10208309213580734_658238562491178464_o.jpg

In the above 8mm fisheye image, the large opening can be seen. The below image was shot inside the tree and looking straight up. Lots of stalactyte like wood formations, with no attachment to earth. The tree was clearly a shell, and bound to fail sooner or later. Only a tiny strip of live cambium supplied energy to the bit of live canopy... some of the foliage above was of the hemlock that leaned into the cedar.
13403855_10208309213860741_4645139522480335547_o.jpg
 
17,650 cubic feet.
Some tree ( Or rather the remnant of some tree)

It is a pity that they didn't have the equivalent of the " Save the Redwoods league" up there, so felling was stopped, while there were still some healthy specimens left.

Sorry, Greenie, leaflicker............I know.

But honestly it reminds me of New Zealand.
When nobody says STOP, the loggers kill EVERYTHING.
There are something like 3-5 Giant Kauris left.
3rd biggest species in the world.
 
Great images, rbtree. Thanks for posting them. Was that fisheye lens just ungodly expensive? I used to be a photo hobbyist, and my recollection is that the original manufacturer's (Nikon, Cannon, etc) fisheye lenses could easily cost in excess of ten or fifteen thousand dollars, and that was a long time ago.

The fact that you own one shows just how seriously you are into photography. I know this represents a derail, but I'm wondering how you like working on images with software on a computer nowadays, versus the old school darkroom days? All the software stuff just sort of takes the fun out of it, for me, for some reason.

Tim
 
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Tim, I got it on a couple day sale from B&H..or Adorama, I forget which, for an ungodly $189!!!! Canon has an 8-15 zoom, at ~$1250. I also just got a Rokinon 24 f/1.4, especially for astrophotography, which I've only just started playing with.. Tests show that, it compares with the Canon, at $1000 less....better in some areas, worse in some....Both lenses are fully manual with no electronic contacts... easy enough to use, however.....

In my film days, as I shot slides, I never did any darkroom work.....
 
RBTREE ...

You wrote yesterday about a possible Tilt-shift, and that's one I've been considering too. Although it's less essential than lenses for portraits which is where I'm headed down the road for paid work, so I'm sparing cash for that. But the Rokinon you mentioned sounded like a fine way to go. I tend to focus manual in live view anyway in the forest, so it would work fine.
 
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