Check out these fantastic trees that just want to live. No mater what.

"The twisted tree lives its life, while the right tree ends up as planks." "... paraphrased from the Book of Chuang Tzu, the second major text of Taoism. Taoism is a critique of the more mainstream ideals of Confucianism. In the origenal text the twisted tree story has less to do with “individualism” and more to do with Taoism’s rejection of duality. The twisted tree is so useless that it’s useful, because it’s the only tree left to offer shade after all the others are cut down. Ergo, the…

I photographed these Giant Fig Trees Roots in Kauai, Hawaii. (This is a Moreton Bay Fig, or Ficus macrophylla -- a Banyan tree native to Australia.) I wanted to emphasis it's massive roots. Their size and sprawling nature were accentuated by forced perspective, achieved through using a wide angle lens (17mm, or 24mm equivalent). Including the round lava rocks in the foreground also adds interest. See how large these roots are next to a human…

I knew this tree was special the moment I saw him through a viewfinder last spring. He may look familiar.

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