Post 1001 - Daily Photos Resume

I am happy to announce that Daily Photos will resume again today!  I am getting settled into life in Indianapolis, IN and my schedule is starting to free up a bit, allowing me to get back to EarlyForest.com.  New photos will be available at larger sizes, now 960x720 pixels.  Tree photos will also feature location and date information!

Nature Conservancy 5th Annual Digital Photo Competition

I recieved an email from the Nature Conservancy recently and wanted to share it with you...

Dear Craig,

Thanks for all the great photos and info about trees. I never knew what a tamarind tree looked like - in fact there are so many trees that I can't identify. Which sort of brings me to a favor I'd like to ask of you.

The Nature Conservancy is holding its 5th Annual Digital Photo Competition and we'd like to invite all nature-loving shutterbugs to enter their favorite shots! Can you please help us by giving us a mention in your blog so your readers know it's time to enter?

We can talk endlessly about the importance of conservation but mere words cannot compete with the visual impact of a great photo. Take a look at last year's Grand Prize-winning photograph by Carol Grant - http://my.nature.org/photography/2009-winners.html. Beautiful photographs of nature encourage people to go out and see for themselves what is truly important to conserve.

This year, 35 photos will be selected as honorable mentions and finalists. The winner will be selected by public vote and featured on the cover of The Nature Conservancy's 2012 calendar, which reaches over 2 million households, and on our website - http://www.nature.org/ .

It's easy to submit photos! Contestants can enter using the Conservancy's free
Flickr(TM) photo sharing group at - http://www.flickr.com/groups/thenatureconservancy/.

All photos submitted to Flickr(TM) should include the tag - "PhotoContest-TNC10". Deadline for submissions is October 4, 2010 11:59 PST.

For more information visit - http://my.nature.org/photography/. Please feel free to email me with your questions.

Thank you,

Midori Matsuyama
Online Outreach
The Nature Conservancy
http://www.nature.org/

Best of Luck Everyone!

Summer Updates

EarlyForest.Com has been idle for far too long. I am gathering materials to begin posting again shortly (not that I ever ran out of material to post).

In the meantime some other exciting stuff is going on here...

Blogger.Com (our blog/website host) has recently launched a new template builder that I have started playing around with this weekend. You can see the changes to the background & stuff right now. I also managed the goof a few things up in the process (I liked the tags list best in the old drop down menu format, so hopefully I can repair that soon). I also plan on putting together a new header image soon.

I am also excited to welcome a new team member to the blog. Rebecca is a naturalist from North Carolina & author of tree blog A Year with the Trees. Rebecca, like Arati, will be posting directly to EarlyForest.Com. We look forward to having her take part in the website!

Happy Arbor Day!

It is Arbor Day 2010, and the end of the first EarlyForest.Com Earth Day ~ Arbor Day Photography Contest. I am pleased to announce that we have a winner.

Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY

Photographer: Karen Hibbert

This year's winner will receive an eco-prize pack including an exclusive EarlyForest.Com reusable canvas bag, a stainless steel water bottle, & a Smithsonian Tree Field Guide.

Special thanks to Karen and everyone that submitted photos and took part in voting. I hope to make this an annual event. Come back often for our daily posts of original tree photos, exclusive tree information, and current news and events regarding the trees and forests of our world.

Earth Day ~ Arbor Day Photography Contest

Only a few days remaining until the votes are tallied up on Arbor Day. You still have time to jump over to our facebook page where you can cast your vote for your favorite photo.

I would like to thank all of the bloggers that helped to spread the word and submitted photos of their own. Please check out their sites for more of their photography and tree related posts.

Trees, Plants and more

treeblog

trees, if you please

Happy Earth Day!

Today is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, and the 1st anniversary of The EarlyForest.Com Earth Day ~ Arbor Day Photography Contest! It is the last day to get your entries in, submissions will not be taken after midnight (US Central Time). Early Submissions (received before today) are up on our Facebook page now. Photos received though out the day will be posted tonight. Email your last minute photo entries to Earthday2010@EarlyForest.Com

2010 Earth Day ~ Arbor Day Photography Contest!

Email your 'Tree' or 'Forest' themed photos to Earthday2010@EarlyForest.Com for a chance to win these prizes.

2010 Earth Day ~ Arbor Day Photography Contest!

5 Days left to submit your photos for the 2010 Earth Day ~ Arbor Day Photography Contest!

Email your entries to EarthDay2010@EarlyForest.Com by April 22nd (next Thursday).

Participation is free and prizes are awarded! Photos should have a "forest" or "tree" theme. All ages welcome! (click here for full details)

2010 Earth Day ~ Arbor Day Prizes!

The Prizes are in for the 2010 Earth Day ~ Arbor Day Photography Contest! The grand prize winner will take home a Smithsonian Tree Field Guide, a stainless steel reusable water bottle, and an exclusive EarlyForest.Com canvas tote bag.

With these items & your camera in hand you will be ready to venture out to photograph trees in your area. The Smithsonian Field Guide is a personal favorite of mine. I carry an older (and much trail worn) edition of this guide with me everywhere I go.

Participation is easy, just email a tree or forest photo that you have taken to EarthDay2010@EarlyForest.Com to be included in the contest. Voting will be held between Earth Day and Arbor Day on Facebook.
For full detail on how to participate visit my previous post http://www.earlyforest.com/2010/04/earth-day-arbor-day-photography-contest.html.

Earth Day / Arbor Day Photography Contest!

This year, in celebration of Earthday & Arbor Day, EarlyForest.Com is hosting a Photography Contest!

Submit your digital "Tree and/or Forest" themed photos to Earthday2010@earlyforest.com to participate.

Rules:
-All entries must be original photos taken by the individual submitting the photo.
-Please include you name with your submission.
-1 entry per person, so choose your best shot!
-You and your friends will be the judges. On Earth Day, April 22nd the photos will be posted to the facebook page where you can 'like' which one is your favorite.
-All entries must be in by the end of Earth Day (April 22nd, 11:59 pm US Central time).
-Votes will be counted on Arbor Day, April 30th!
-All ages welcome, children should work with an adult and follow all facebook age rules when participating.
-Please include full sized photo files in JPG format.
-No photo manipulations (cropping and tweeking of color, hue, contrast, saturation, or brightness are okay)
-Submitted photos will be displayed at www.EarlyForest.Com & The EarlyForest Facebook Page
-Play fair, have fun and spread the word.
-Participation is Free & Prizes will be awarded!

NPR : Fog Fluctuations Could Threaten Giant Redwoods

Jump to the full story at NPR.Org

NPR : Snow Weighs On DC's Famed Cherry Trees

Jump to the full story at NPR

More Photos Every Day

As I begin to make plans this spring I took a moment to look over what I still have on hand from last year. I seem to have collected a lot more photos than I realized. In the past I have generally posted one photo per day, but that doesnt seem to make sense anymore considering the backlog of photos that I have.

Starting tomorrow, rather than posting one photo per day, I am going to post one tree per day. That way you will get the whole set of photos at once. When photographing a tree we typically try to capture as many detail areas as possible such as leaves, bark, fruit, flowers, and so on. Depending upon the tree, the season photographed, and other factors that could mean one photo or 20 photos, but for now I would expect 2 to 5.

Happy New Year!

Every year EarlyForest.Com gets bigger and better.

In 2009 we...
...Expanded the already extensive photo collection
...Visited some great new arboreta
...Added two new team members, Arati and Linda
...Built the Tree Leaf Identification Tool
...Added a twitter news feature
...Kept you up-to-date with current events
...Launched our YouTube page and posted our 1st video
...Got included in Carolyn Friedman's "Top 50 Botany Blogs" list
...Moved from Tennessee to Indiana
...Shared our photos with an Artist
...Visited some interesting places and wrote articles about them
...Talked about growing trees from fruit seeds
...And made some great friends and learned a lot about trees along the way

In 2010 we plan to keep growing and improving. Due to popular demand we are working on some projects including a tree selector tool and descriptive tree profiles...as well as adding hundreds of tree photographs and dozens of arboretum reviews. I also plan on greatly expanding the YouTube page with videos from the places I visit and people I meet. We are also interested in growing the team with talented photographers, writers, travelers, and researchers. Please email me at Craig at EarlyForest dot com if you are interested. 2010 looks like it will be another great year for EarlyForest.Com, thank you for your enthusiastic support as we continue to grow into one of the internet's best free tree information communities.

EarlyForest.Com Listed in top 50 Botany Blogs

Early Forest was listed this week on Carolyn Friedman's "Top 50 Botany Blogs" under "Top Botanical Blogs on Trees" at http://radiologytechnicianschools.net/top-50-botany-blogs/.

Stop in and check out the list for other great resources. Some of my favorite blogs are there including The World’s Tree Species, Treeblog and Heavy Petal.


Thanks for including us on the list Carolyn!

Winter Update 2009

It took a bit longer than expected, but I'm finally ready to post Linda's photos from The Botanical Gardens of Nevis, West Indies. This massive collection of tropical tree photos will run parallel to my normal daily photo series...so twice the daily photos for the next several months!

Also, EarlyForest.com's base of operations has shifted location as of last month. For a brief couple of weeks I joined the 10 percent of Americans that are unemployed. Fortunately I was able to quickly secure new work and was able to keep EarlyForest running without interruption. My new position brought me all the way from Middle Tennessee to Northern Indiana. I still have a backlog of southern tree photos, but you can expect to get a sampling of some Northern US trees in the mix as well (not to mention the huge overlap of trees between the territories and potential upcoming field trips).

Growing Wisdom : Asian Longhorn Beetle

David Epstein meets up with entomologist Bob Childs to learn about the Asian Longhorn Beetle. Watch the video here, then jump over to GrowingWisdom.Com for more great videos.

NPR : Why Leaves Really Fall Off Trees

Robert Krulwich speaks with Peter Raven, president of the Missouri Botanical Garden, about trees in the Fall. Listen here then jump to the story at NPR.ORG

Pres. Obama plants Littleleaf Linden at White House

Commemorative Tree Planting at the White House from White House on Vimeo.

NPR : Using Trees To Curb Climate Change

View the Full story at NPR.Org