What's this?

Walter Pall said:
I was asking everybody to think 'why is Walter doing this?' There is a good reason. A tree that looks like a typical bonsai would look very odd in this setting.
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Because trees in the wild are not idealized like our bonsai. Life is hard even for trees and it shows on them in the untouched wild. That's why your photo feels off.
 
Walter Pall said:
I was asking everybody to think 'why is Walter doing this?' There is a good reason. A tree that looks like a typical bonsai would look very odd in this setting.
Click to expand...
Yes very true. And this looks quite natural. Ok. Thanks.
 
Forty years ago I learned the art of bonsai from the bonsai Bible - Old Testament a and New Testament - Bonsai Techniques I and II by John Naka. I was deeply impressed by a few examples where he took photographs of interesting real trees in wilderness and put a bonsai pot underneath. Then he mildly adjusted the tree and it was a Naturalistic Bonsai. "Make your bonsai look like a tree and not your tree look like bonsai", John said. How do I tell whether I have succeeded?

For a few decades I have tried this in my garden. Now some of the trees are starting to mature and be really presentable. To test whether my creations are really naturalistic I now do exactly the contrary of what John Naka showed us. I take my naturalistic bonsai and project it into a real landscape. This is for fun and also to see whether the tree really fits into the natural landscape. If it were looking like a typical bonsai it would not fit, it would seem to be an odd alien. This Oriental Hornbeam (Carpinus orientalis) fits very well according to my feeling.

What is this? It is not a tree, it is not a bonsai, it is a photograph of a small sculpture of a tree made of a living tree that is supposed to look like a real tree that has been projected with Photoshop into a natural landscape to test whether this would feel alright. Nothing more, nothing less. I think it is a fun game and whoever does Naturalistic Bonsai should try it. Thank you John Naka for inspiring me.
 
@Walter Pall

Hi Walter

Thanks for sharing.
Really interresting way of seeing things.
Looking at a bonsai in a real environment really shows that sometime the root base can easily be way too large compared to a natural tree.
I must admit I still like the "regular" large nebari bonsai style but this give me another point of view.

Thanks
 
I used to work at the state veterans' home. As a veteran myself, it was easy for me to empathize with the residents, and imagine how I might feel being confined there in my invalid years.

In my wildest dreams I imagine moving all my trees into the tiny garden at the center of the building, and arranging them to feel as though I was once again out in the hills, slowly scaling toward the peak of a mountain, my dog by my side, and not an AK-47 within 100 miles to point at me.

Aah, the good life.
 
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