Jun 22 2011

Yew in Progression

Just looking through my blog reader and spotted this on Rodrigo’s Kintall blog. Its a fantastic series of photos showing the development of a yew. You don’t need to read Portugeuese to follow this one 🙂

Click Yew Progresson to view.

Jun 22 2011

Bring on the Dancing Girls!

A week ago, a TV production company contacted me through my blog. They wanted to know if they could hire a tree for a Dale Farm commercial (local ice cream company). Don, one of the chaps from Street Monkey came to have a look at my trees on Friday. They don’t actually want it to look like a bonsai, but an actual tree. He had specific requirements to do with scale. They’re going to have people running around under the tree! After a look around he opted for my Cork Bark Chinese Elm with a Larch as a back up. The Elm isn’t one of my better trees and is still quite young. However, the height of the trunk and the mature bark fit the needs for the commercial.

So, last night I popped along to a studio at UTV to have my Corkie filmed and photographed. Phil, came with me for the craic. I asked if I could take a few snaps in the background when my tree was being shot.

When we arrived, the days shooting was running over and our time had been pushed back an hour. To our amazement, as we waited, a dancing girl in red appeared and then disappeared into the studio. The look on Phil’s face was priceless. We hovered around the door but couldn’t really see much. Next up was a yellow dancing girl. Don spotted us hovering and suggested we would get a better view from inside the studio. God bless you Don 🙂 We got to see the yellow girl preform her routine. Apart from the obvious attractions in the studio, it was very interesting to see what was being used to light, reflect, and film the commercial. A big pop out blue backdrop/screen caught my eye as it would be perfect for photographing bonsai.

Anyway, next up was the Orange Dancer. I had my big camera with me but didn’t want to look like a tourist/pervert by taking a photograph. That didn’t last long 🙂 I used the camera on my phone instead as it’s more covert 😀 Here’s the few sneaked pics.

If only I had got a shot of the red dancer Phoarrr!!

Anyway, next up was our little tree. Green screen doesn’t work with green leaves so blue was used and the lighting was arranged. Here’s the setting up.

I had to remove a few spiders webs that the lights highlighted. As the heat from the lights rose, some baby spiders hiding in the tree used the heat to float up off the tree into the main studio lights. Little jump lines everywhere 🙂

I managed to grab a quick snap of the tree before they moved the bad boy Sony camera into place for the actual shot required.

Camera men swing into action.

The Director checks all is up to scratch.

And we were done 🙂

All that was left to do was grab a few arm fulls of the free Ice cream on the way out.

I’m pretty sure the tree will be unrecognisable in the final commercial, Photoshop, or the video equivalent, will play a big part in the final product. I’m also pretty sure you wont see as much of the red dancers leg as I did either 🙂

If you are reading this, thanks Don 🙂

Jun 21 2011

???

What’s this got to do with bonsai?

Find out later! What a weird day I just had 🙂

Jun 21 2011

Giant’s Causeway

Our final stop was at the Giant’s Causeway. This is probably the worst year to visit it. The centre is in the middle of a major rebuild and there is no parking on site. We had to get the Park and Ride from Bushmills.

It was starting to get cloudy and time was running out, but we still managed to get down onto the rocks. I even managed to get a few photos without the millions of tourists in them! A hard task. Top tip, most don’t walk right down onto the point where the rocks are stunning.

Can you spot the sleeping camel in the first photo?

Boy, would I like one of those stones to display a tree on!! No chance 😦

Jun 21 2011

Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge

Our next stop along the coast was the Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge. This is a National Trust location and as usual had lots of visitors. Some nice scenery as usual for the North Coast. It’s about a 1k walk to the bridge from the car park.

The rope bridge has also been a victim of the health and safety people. It used to be a scary experience when it was the temporary bridge erected by the fishermen every year to allow them to cross over to the island to fish. Now it’s child’s play.

My big sister at the front holding everyone else up 🙂 Still scary for her!

Jun 21 2011

Bushmills

We had lunch in Bushmills. The ‘Flash in the Pan’ chippy is worth a visit 🙂

Bushmills Distillery is the oldest in Ireland and I don’t care what anyone else says, It’s the best Whiskey in the World.

We had our chips at the side of the Bush River. It looks like a river of Guinness 🙂

Jun 21 2011

Kinbane Castle

Our first planned stop was Kinbane Castle, or what’s left of it, tucked away in a secluded spot on the North Coast. When the rest of the coast is buzzing with tourists, this place is always quite. We were the only car in the car park when we arrived. The Castle is hidden from view unless you actually do a bit of walking down some steep steps. It sits on a headland that is slowing falling into the sea. Some work has been done to preserve whats left of the castle. This is one of my favourite places.

Castle and headland.

View along coast from carpark.

Hoover fly basking in the morning sun along the path down to the headland.

Guardian stone at the entrance to the headland. Rathlin Island in background and Scotland in the mists beyond.

Castle ruins.

Sea Thrift on the beach.

It was great to see lots of wild orchids among the grass.

I was sorry to walk back up the path and leave it behind. Here’s my parting shot of the Castle and headland with Rathlin Island in the background.

On to the Rope Bridge and the Giants Causeway. 🙂

Jun 21 2011

Frosses Pines

I took some of my family, visiting from Australia, up to the North Coast yesterday. On my way I stopped briefly ay the Pine trees lining the Frosses Road near Ballymoney. I have always admired these pines leaning over the road creating an arch. Well, they used too until some were removed for safety reasons!!

Here’s a few pics of the pines.

Jun 19 2011

Garden Visit

After Michael had visited my garden on Saturday, myself and Phil popped over to see his. As usual I had my camera in tow and braving the rain I took a few very quick snaps. The quality of some of the photos is low due to the speed at which I took them. The lack of a plain background means that some of the trees don’t look as good as they do in the wood, so to speak. I hope to get some better shots of Michaels bonsai soon.

Some beautiful plants in the garden as well. I never miss an opportunity to get a few flower snaps. I even got some of those Pink poppies home with me 🙂

The look on Phil’s face here 🙂

Jun 19 2011

In the Sun and the Rain

Well, I had great fun yesterday spending the day with a few mates working and talking about trees.

I started off on my own and made a start at defining the deadwood/live vein on my Rigeda juniper. This is as far as I got got before Stan arrived.

Stan brought his Chinese Juniper for some styling work. This is it before.

We started working outside in the sun.

Stan had to be given a special pass to be allowed into my garden wearing a Man Ure shirt! This was Stan’s first proper go at wiring and, he’s either a natural, or I’m an amazing teacher!! More than likely the former 🙂

We had to move inside as our usual Northern Ireland climate kicked in.

He even cleans up after himself which is a rarity in my garage.

This is the tree at the end of the day. To pull it further into shape it would have required further fine detailed wiring, but I felt that this was sufficient for the day. We discussed the addition of a shari in the future and another possible front.

Here’s the before and after side by side.

Stephen brought down his two satsuki for thinning and structural work. These hadn’t been touched in years and were in dire need of a major haircut.

We started on this one. It has had a hard life! A few years ago it lost the whole apex and had been left to regrow. This year a stray plank of wood being waved around by a careless workman broke another branch near the apex. (Sorry Phil couldn’t resist 🙂 )

Many of the problems can’t be addressed today as further growth is required. We hope that after this pruning, vigorous growth will allow for a redesign of the apex and a new potting angle to compensate.

Stephen at work, hiding behind the tree. It’s only a shohin 🙂

Pad before and after thinning.

and after work today.

We ran out of time with the other satsuki. We only managed to get the rest of the flowers removed and one branch partially thinned.

Another visitor to my garage was Michael, who has just joined the club. He’s been doing bonsai for roughly 12 years and had contacted me asking for advice about a few trees that had suffered over the Winter.

I think he enjoyed a walk around my garden and I popped over to his house with Phil that evening for a look at his trees. More of that in another post.

He brought with him a Juniper that had been previously styled by a few of Europe’s big names. It had suffered due to the Winter and a poor choice of potting mix. He was quick to see the benefits of a more open mix that he had previously been taught to use. In fact may of his trees had issues with mix choice.

This is Michael having a chat with Phil about Juniper growth and the techniques used to improve his collection.

Michael also had a problem with the deadwood at the base of his Juniper rotting. We introduced him to a few new products to stop this and helped him get the rotted wood removed down to savable harder wood.