… in 4 cameras
As one approaches Dorchester from the south, from way outside the town there used to be an avenue of trees. I can just about remember them from my childhood (I think!). They’ve long since gone. I suspect they were elm and disappeared like so many others with the Dutch Elm Disease in the 70’s. The main road, still has trees either side further in, it’s known as Weymouth Avenue as it’s the main route between the two towns. As you drive into the town, and arrive at the start of the centre, the road parts, you can go left or right. Straight ahead are two impressive large old trees.
A couple of weeks ago the residents of the town received a letter from the council, informing us that the trees have become structurally unsafe, and will be removed for safety. One can’t argue against that, if they fell they could kill. It’s still sad to see them go. Over three weekends they were removed. These three square images were taken on my Hasselblad with my last ever roll of “original” Fuji Neopan Across.
The first weekend all of the smaller branches were removed and taken away. That left the two trunks standing. I visited again with a Panasonic TZ90, and made a couple of snaps, on my way to the post office one morning.
I visited again a week later with a Nikon SLR and a dated roll of HP5, expired in 2008! This I allowed an extra stop for and rated it at 200 – I developed it normally, but it just didn’t need the extra stop and the negs are a bit “heavy”.
Finally I had a couple of frames left in another roll of outdated HP5 – same date, but this time in the Olympus XA. The I rated at 400, and developed normally – much better contrast!
Apparently some large replacements are going to be planed in their place… I’ll report back!
S.H.O.U.T. 
It’s sad when trees (or other local landmarks) get removed like this, even though necessary.
I remember a few years ago when a huge landmark tree was similarly moved (it’s trunk had become riddled with fungus) and there was outrage – some of it directed at the person in whose garden it had stood – from people who didn’t know (or, in some cases I suspect, couldn’t be bothered to find out) the reason and were determined to place fault for the removal. If it had fallen in the wrong direction it would have taken out several houses!
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Hello, I agree! I’m only one small step removed from a “tree hugger” – love to see them, and hate to see them go, but sometimes it is necessary. From an environmental perspective, I’d like to see a policy that states if you take one down, you must replace with two (somewhere)! I’ve only recently discovered there is a National Trust fairly close to me that has quite a few old/ancient trees on it’s property, so I’m just waiting for a nice day, when the leaves are out.. and of course the coffee shop is open!! Cheers and best wishes Andy
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