sierraclub.org - sierra magazine - march/april 2013 - year-life-lonely-oak - that tree: a year in the life of a lonely oak
Photos by Mark Hirsch | Text by Della Watson
The photographer had to race against the clock to achieve this dramatic shot. "That day my DSL had gone out at home, and I had to go to town to use the library's. We had a drought this summer—there was no rain—but when I walked out [of the library], the wind was howling and the sky was just boiling. I was six miles from the tree. I could see the tail end of the storm." Hirsch raced across the town, hoping to reach his subject in time. "I jumped out [of my truck] and started taking pictures," he recalls. "The storm never produced rain. It just howled and blew over me. Within half an hour, there were blue skies."