As volunteer photographer at Markshall Estate, I’m used to being asked - often at short notice - to provide a variety of images: new retail products, people and events for publications and diverse newsworthy items. On this day, the brief can best be described as somewhat loose and flexible. “I want some pictures of trees with googly eyes,” was the odd-but-earnest request from my marketing colleague. And so we ventured out into the arboretum, camera and props in hand, in the search for suitable candidates.

Meet one such contender, a Metasequoia glyptostroboides - or Dawn Redwood if you prefer.

I have always enjoyed making images amongst these living fossils*, though this has to be one of the best so far! I particularly like his wonky moustache and scattered stubble. Any resemblance to a certain famous painting is purely coincidental. [Ahem]. 

*So called because fossil finds from the late Cretaceous (between 66 and 100 million years ago) appear identical to those living today.