The landscape of Qilan Mountain in Yilan County bears an eerie resemblance to Fangorn Forest in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, blanketed in ancient, gigantic trees that have seemingly transcended time.
Now a few of those natural wonders, located in one of the least accessible areas, are gaining global exposure thanks to an Australian team determined to educate people around the world about forest ecosystems and to promote conservation, one tree at a time.
“Traveling so far to see a tree was a nervous gamble,” said Steve Pearce, a photographer who runs The Tree Projects organization. “We were very nervous when we first met the tree, but as soon as we stepped out of the car, we immediately knew we had a winner.”
Photo courtesy of Steve Pearce
Together with his wife, ecologist Jennifer Sanger, Pearce founded The Tree Projects with a simple mission — to raise awareness of the world’s forests by capturing images of their biggest trees.
The inspiration for the initiative was National Geographic’s 2009 portrait of Californian redwoods, which opened people’s eyes to the giant trees.
Pearce and Sanger believe that “the simple experience of seeing a giant tree for the first time can break down preconceptions” and that showing people forests in all their magnificence is more effective in building appreciation rather than just telling people about them.
“We simplify our message, we simplify the forest to one picture, to just one tree,” Pearce said.
Having visited swamp gums in Tasmania, Australia, and rimu trees in New Zealand, Pearce and Sanger traveled to Taiwan on a new mission in April.
They spent 17 days producing a full-length portrait of a massive conifer, known as a Taiwania tree, using arboreal rigging techniques — except this time they got three for the price of one, “three sisters” to be precise.
The “three sisters” are three massive Taiwania trees growing close together at the end of Forest Road No. 170 in Hsinchu County, which is only accessible from Yilan County via Provincial Highway No. 7 and Forest Road No. 100.
Pearce told the Central News Agency that they had no previous knowledge of the landscape and trees until they met Rebecca Hsu (徐嘉君), an assistant researcher at the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, at a science conference in London last year.
After learning about the Australians’ endeavors, Hsu invited them to visit Taiwan to undertake a project on Taiwania trees.
Hsu said the three sisters emerged as the best candidates thanks to the restoration of Forest Road No. 170 last year after it had been partly damaged by a typhoon.
That allowed the team to reach the location without having to trek about 5km as Hsu had to do back in 2014 during her first encounter with the trees.
“I wanted to help deliver a striking image of Taiwania to the world so people know how unique they are and how diverse Taiwan’s ecosystem is,” Hsu said.
The conifer often grows to an impressive size, with its trunk measuring up to 4m in diameter.
It is listed as “vulnerable” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of threatened species
Pearce and Sanger had their eye on the “big sister,” which is 70m tall, but also captured its two sisters growing next to it that measure 63m and less than 50m.
As anybody who has ever tried taking a photograph of a massive tree knows, getting a full, realistic likeness is a challenge.
Pearce uses composite photography to achieve the goal.
In this case, Pearce and Sanger were joined by a Taiwanese team of about 30 people and used 1,140m of rope to create an aerial rigging system suspended horizontally between another tree and a weather station near the target trees.
Cameras then took 1,200 photographs of the Taiwania trees from different perspectives, with climbers, including Hsu, in the trees as a reference of scale to highlight how grand they are.
While the installation of the equipment was challenging due to heavy rain, the shooting and climbing were a breeze, Pearce said.
“It’s funny, but to us climbing up a giant tree and shooting lines between them isn’t difficult. We had more trouble getting around in Taipei,” he said.
Being able to work with three trees with very different characteristics growing next to each other was something particularly special compared with other projects featuring a single tree, Pearce said.
“It was like they each were individuals, but together were something supernatural,” he said.
The experience was heaven for Sanger and Hsu as scientists.
“Taiwania trees are so tall, it is impossible to see what plants are growing up in the canopy from the ground,” Sanger said. “I was surprised to see that there were some beautiful orchids up in the canopy of the trees.”
Climbing and studying the trees up close was fun, but Pearce’s and Sanger’s work began when they returned to their office in Tasmania.
They had to choose the best photographs from the 1,200 shots, overlay one on top of the other and then blend them using a digital brush to create a full-length portrait without any distortion.
A total of 43 photographs were used for the composite shot.
Pearce said it took him three weeks editing 10 hours a day to get the tree structure right, followed by another two months to smooth out the light variations between the top and bottom of the trees and other features.
“It wasn’t really work as it felt like I was climbing the tree and it’s a great subject to have occupy so much of my mind, but I’d still rather be out climbing the tree for real,” he said.
Once the final portrait was complete, Hsu worked with the Taiwan Environmental Information Association to set up a local fundraising campaign centered around the photograph, turning it into a 1m poster.
Since the campaign was launched in August it has raised more than NT$2 million (US$66,605) to support the dissemination of environmental information.
Taiwan Environmental Information Association deputy secretary-general Sun Hsiu-ju (孫秀如) said that the campaign had been so successful because it resonated with the public.
“Human beings are only humbled when they confront an immense being,” Sun said. “This artistic approach is extraordinary because it has helped us engage different groups of people in our work.”
Pearce could not agree more.
“This is easily our best project yet,” he said. “We had the best people, we had the best equipment, we had the best climate, we had the best scientists and we had, I have to say, the best tree.”
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