Cork oak against the sky, a photo from Portalegre, South

Photographer's Note

This is an unhappy dried cork oak.

As my previous post, this was one of my earlier photos shot digitally.

I have two more recent posts with the same the (i and ii).

The place is a few Km's from the tiny village of P� da Serra, which is part of the concelho (county?) of Nisa, near the road to the village of Salavessa.

It could have been shot in many locals in the portuguese region of Alentejo and even in others areas of Portugal or the nearby Spanish Extremadura, Andalucia or Castilla-Leon, as it's a very common type of landscape in these regions.

Cork oaks are very important in local economies, as they produce cork, a rather lucrative material (at least compared with other alternative sources of income) and their fruits (a kind of acorn) are very good for pig food. Actually pigs prefer the acorn of the holm oak (Quercus rotundifolia), which is very similar to cork oak, except that it doesn't produce cork.

Both trees, although still very common, are somewhat menaced, as with the abandonment of country side by people, the owners tend not paying much attention to them and most of them prefer to have their land covered with eucalyptus, a much more lucrative tree in the short therm. Oaks need literally douzens of years to be productive, while eucalyptus can be shopped a few years after it's planted. The downside of eucalyptus is that besides damaging the beauty of the landscape, it dries and acidifies the land, making it dificult to other plants to grow even after it's cut.

Cork is the rind of this trees and it's collected every 8 years or so (it depends a bit on the place and on the owner, sometimes it's less, others it's more) and then it's processed to make a variety of things, like corks for bottles and floors. It's a very good natural thermal insulator and has much resistance to fire (it burns, but it's ignition is very retarded compared to other materials). I know about this a little because I remember cork industry publicizing that they exported cork to be used on space shuttle as a thermal insulator and to Japan, where the building regulations on fire were very strict.

Meat of pigs fed with acorn is very popular in Portugal and Spain, as its flavour doesn't compare with the others and lately because it's believed that is much more healthy than other "red meats". It's eaten either fresh or in smoked sausages and hams.

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Links to Wikipedia: Nisa, Cork Oak, Cork.

marula, Donald, Iuli, berseph, alentejo, superpau, cuneyt-sb, robertosalguero, trips, rigoletto, paura, pboehringer, marjan, xuaxo, edytungkal, niknik, magiqa has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Donald (136) 2006-10-08 20:42

HI Jose,
What a truly beautiful photo, the tree is great the sky is so blue and with just enough land in the photo to compleat it.
The note is great so I learn some more. well done TFS

Iuli (838) 2006-10-08 23:51

Hi Jose!
Nice one! Very strange branches...
I love the contrast of the tree with the blue sky background. It may have looked better with more of the trunk but that's a minor aspect. I'm also wondering how it might look as a black profile on the blue sky but I think some of the interesting details might be lost in such a case.
TFS
Iulian

berseph (1758) 2006-10-09 0:15

Beautiful. Probably the most striking element of this picture for me is the contrast between the tree and the vibrant blue sky background. I love the gradient of blues across the horizon. Nicely captured, and very informative note.

batalay (41261) 2006-10-09 0:59

Jose,
The remarkable lace-like image of branches, set against the smoothness of a deep blue sky -- this is a very effective image. I wonder if it would not have been appropriate to show the base of the tree, e.g. exposed roots. Thank you for posting the photo. Greetings from Virginia, USA Bulent

UnTrained (0) 2006-10-09 7:20

Hi Jose,
tell the truth. You took this old dry tree, cleaned it, took it to a landscape plain enough and painted also the sky, didn't you?
No, let us stop kidding ;-) A wonderful evening shot, an amazing blue sky and the branches of this tree in light and shadow are great. The impression is a bit like "Tree of Oak in the snow" by Caspar David Friedrich, a german romatic painter.
I like it a lot.
Regards Ulf

PS: county and district are in the german translation both for administrative regions, but county is more for the larger ones.

alentejo (1954) 2006-10-09 9:33

Ola Joao !
Bela imagem. Simples na composi鏰o mas muito eficaz. Gosto particularmente da luz sobre as pernadas. O pormenor da casinha, em baixo � direita � interessante.
Um abra鏾.

superpau (1464) 2006-10-09 10:18

Hola Jose
Me gusta tu composici髇, centrandote en el viejo arbol con el cielo azul de fondo y nada m醩. Y como los rayos del sol elegieron solo algunas ramas para iluminarlas...
Muy agradable visualmente. El cielo esta perfecto.
Saludos, Paula.

sarp_72 (0) 2006-10-09 19:50 [Comment]

Show Comment +

cuneyt-sb (6576) 2006-10-10 3:08

Hi Jose
Well done my friend ,very good compo and nice frame , Shadows and light in good couple
Best regards

robertosalguero (292) 2006-10-10 3:46

Jose this is an excellent picture with an amazing combination of beautiful colors. The silhouette of the tree against the deepblue sky is very nice. A very interesting approach to this composition. The tree being very dark at the bottom and gradually coming into the light right at the top. The light on the top part of the picture is excellent, giving so many details of the branches a good tones. A very effective perspective and an intelligent idea for a very good picture. Cheers from Canada :-)

Roberto

kurekpit (401) 2006-10-11 22:20

Hi Jose
Wonderful image,superb colours & composition
Great shot
Regards

* Piotr *

trips (1602) 2006-10-13 10:23

Viva Jos�,

Grande post! A foto est� excelente e as notas muito interessantes!!

Um abra鏾,
Pedro

Talia (242) 2006-10-26 14:18

Powerful sky! So clear and blue, I like it a lot! Your exposure works really well to show the shadow of the tree.
Nice work!
Talia

henrytf (985) 2006-10-31 18:56

Hi Jose,
What a beautiful picture.
I like it very much for the blue of the sky, the sharpness of the silhouette of the tree and the light from the declining sun illuminating the upper branches.
It's such a pity a tree like that has come to the end of its life.
Regards
Henry

RuiAlmeida (90) 2006-11-03 16:57

Ol� Jos�
Excelente escolha entre os ramos da 醨vore (sobreiro) e o c閡 limp韘simo.
Contraste soberbo, mais uma vez parab閚s
Aquele abra鏾
Rui

rigoletto (34279) 2006-11-17 16:43

Hello Jose,
Wonderful oak relic, it is dead but now serves as a piece of art. The blue of the sky is perfect. Congratulations.
Deniz

Paul57 (2223) 2006-11-21 21:50

Hi Jose,
I have just added this picture among my favorites. I really like the dark blue sky because it emphasizes the beauty of the branches. Great POV and extremely sharp.
TFS.
Paul

paura (25802) 2006-12-14 16:44

Jos�,
Uma linda fotografia dessa incomum 醨vore. Incr韛eis as tonalidades que voc� encontrou.

Uma excelente fotografia.

Paulo

sergio1 (12152) 2006-12-29 5:14

Hola Jose

Me gusta mucho este tipo de fotos y me recuerda a una foto que presente no hace mucho tiempo. El entramado de ramas combina muy bien con el fonde azul cielo.
Un simple compo pero muy efectiva.
saludos
Sergio

scalerman (26900) 2007-01-17 0:25

Jose: I only comment on images I like; perhaps the antithesis of TE... But this crisp, bristling tree, stretches into the fines reportoire of images you've posted of late. fine eye here. regards, c

pboehringer (770) 2007-01-20 12:03

Hi Jose, I'm just browsing through your collection and found another cork oak tree. This one here is even better than the previous one that I saw earlier. The partial sunlite and partial in the dark tree is great. Yu really choose a magic moment to get it. First I thought that you used a CPF but reading through the critiques I realized that it is the blue hour and the underexposure that gave this wonderful effect.
Great one! ... and I won't tell you who this picutre reminds me off. :-)
Just a small suggestion: clone the poverline towers out.
Regards, Peter

marjan (7) 2007-02-12 12:40

hi jose,wondeful shot with excelent coloures. your explanation is vrey useful.
Marjan

xuaxo (6854) 2007-06-14 17:13

Ol� Jos�
Apesar da "desgra鏰" em que est�, este sobreiro deu uma bela imagem contra esse c閡 puro.
F

edytungkal (4551) 2007-10-23 18:50

Hello Jose,
I love to see this beautiful tree against nice blue sky, your composition is excellent. It has shown the contrast colours between subject and the bg. Great work :-)

daniel

magiqa (1292) 2008-03-02 17:26

Such a wonderful photo of this cork oak. Very interesting tree. I have seen those trees in Portugal, but they were green, although they suffered from the wounds that were made in them to get the cork.