Rainbow Gum in Color

October 31, 2011

"Palette". Copyright Jessie T. Ponce 2011

"Pastel". Copyright Jessie T. Ponce 2011

Yes, you guessed it right, these are close-up shots of a tree trunk. The tree is locally known as “Bagras” , also commonly known as Mindanao Gum, Rainbow Gum, or Rainbow Eucalyptus. Indigenous to the Philippines, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea; the Bagras (Eucalyptus deglupta) has a smooth and constantly peeling bark – a process that produces a perpetual change of color on the bark ranging from yellow and dull green to grayish blue to rusty brown – most probably the reason for gaining the word ‘rainbow’ in its name.

"Yellow". Copyright Jessie T. Ponce 2011

"Moss". Copyright Jessie T. Ponce 2011

It was not really my intention to take detailed photos of this tree’s barks. Bagras and mahogany trees have occupied a portion of my farm for such a long time now that they have become commonplace and did not attract much of my photographic interest anymore. But the other day was just one of those humid tropical afternoons when I didn’t feel like losing more sweat by helping in the farm work so I wandered with my camera into the “bagras mini-forest” without any particular subject in mind. I’ve already taken a few shots of the tall trees when I noticed the varied colors on the tree trunks being brightened by the afternoon sunlight so I decided to focus on the detail of individual trees, specifically the colorful barks, rather than the whole forest and actually liked what I captured.

"Stain". Copyright Jessie T. Ponce 2011

"Scar". Copyright Jessie T. Ponce 2011

It was quite nice to focus on the detail this time and I was excited to view the resulting photos on my laptop screen. I noticed while processing the photos that they looked good both in colored versions and in sepia such that I actually hesitated as to how to present the final versions, eventually deciding to group them into two sets: those with smoother surface in color which are included in this post; and those with rough or peeling skin in sepia which I will include in my next post. I’m not sure if my decision made sense so perhaps you can tell me.