I dislike palm trees, intensely
I often call myself the “South of 10″ man, i.e., I’m happiest if you keep me south of Interstate 10. Interstate 10 runs from Santa Monica, California (a Los Angeles western suburb) to Jacksonville, Florida, and runs through eight states (west to east): California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.
Pretty much synonymous with much of that area below Interstate 10 are palm trees. I dislike palm trees, intensely. To me they are nothing more than an ugly telephone pole with some leaves a couple of hundred feet up in the air. Except for young ones; they are ugly trees with heavy, dense branches/leaves and lots of huge thorns. Why, oh why, would anyone want palm trees on their property?
This morning when I went on an early morning walk to Lake Murray (see The Goose Lady of Lake Murray), I was presented with a spectacular sunrise. Both the sunsets and sunrises for the past couple of weeks have been spectacular. Unfortunately, since I was walking, I couldn’t find a good location to get that spectacular sunrise picture. Here’s the best I got before the colors disappeared:
Aaack! Palm trees!
That’s the picture as it came out of my Canon 550D camera. Remember what my wise old grandmother said, though: “What comes out of a camera is just the basics to start with.”
I took the basics to Photoshop CS6 and used the Lasso tool, Content Aware fill, and the Clone stamp to get rid of some palm trees and then played around with the contrast and brightness to give me the following. Except for the missing palm trees, it more closely resembles what I saw this morning:
I left a couple of palm trees in so you would know that I really was south of Interstate 10. Of course, for all you know, this picture was taken in Alaska and I added some palm trees. Don’t worry. It’s really from right here in La Mesa, California. I’ve never been to Alaska……..lol
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Posted on September 6, 2012, in Adobe, Digital photo editing, Flora, How I Did It, Mother & Father Nature, My wise old grandmother, Photos and tagged california sunrise pictures, california sunset pictures, la mesa sunrise pictures, la mesa sunset pictures, san diego sunrise pictures, san diego sunset pictures. Bookmark the permalink. 61 Comments.
with you on the palm trees
There are many other types of palm trees that don’t look so silly. These leggy ones are so dreary.
I would substitute “some” for “many.”
Lovely sunrise.. pity about the palms… but are they not synonymous with the west coast of the USA..?
Not all of the West Coast. One you get to San Francisco, they are few. They totally disappear from the landscape by the time you reach the Oregon border.
What I dislike so much about them…is the fact that the (@#(@ idiot developers rip up perfectly BEAUTIFUL, old oaks, and replace them with stringy palms. As if to say to the tourists: Look! You’re REALLY in Florida now! Idiots.
I have seen that done, too. Oaks require lots of water. Stringy palms, not so much.
In our area, the native live oaks really don’t require that much water — making it all that more ridiculous. Remove the shade! Long live the concrete!
All oaks require lots of water, but in your area it falls naturally from the sky. Oaks also have a large root system that gets every little drop out of the soil.
Oooh, Russel, I am crushed (almost). As a Florida girl, I love palm trees. Our state would not be natural without them. Goes to show ya that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
Blessings to you ~ Maxi
I know some people who like telephone poles, too……………lol
No palm trees in Maine! Too bad, it would be amusing to see them sticking out of a snowbank.
It would!……lol
Have you ever notice how dismal they look when it is really smoggy in LA….Yuck!!!!
I haven’t because I think they look dismal all the time and try not to look at them……….lol
LOL good point!
It’s amazing what you can do with that software!
To a Brit from a dull, grey town in the north of England, palm trees are glamorous and appealing. It’s all about perspective.
It is, and when I stand under them, or even nearby, they look like an ugly telephone pole. The interesting thing is that cities are now doing away with telephone poles and putting utility wires underground. Eventually maybe the rest of humanity will take note of the leftover telephone poles (read, palm trees) and get rid of them, too!…………….lol
Oh no! How will we recognise California in the movies then?
I will talk to the movie makers. I’m thinking that whenever the action is in California, there will be a C superimposed in the top left corner.
Good thinking, Batman!
Those photos are gorgeous, but I must admit, as an inhabitant of Ohio, I rather like palm trees. Probably because I get to so rarely see them.
They do seem to say that you’re in the sunny South. I always find it funny when I see people around town taking pictures of palm trees. It’s obvious they are not from the South.
Wow…I never thought I’d actually hear another person say “I don’t like palm trees”…but here you are.
I’ve said those exact words before and people just kind of look at me, like WHY??? The oaks, the evergreens, anything but palm trees for me.
We could start a club on Facebook or Meetups. “The I don’t like palm trees” club.
Well, you never know…there may be millions of other people out there just like us.
As a Canadian, I love palm trees. Their novelty hasn’t worn off, I suppose. Fir trees, on the other hand, drive me to distraction. All needle-droppy, prickly, and full of black flies. I guess it’s really just a matter of perspective.
Palm trees have lots of roaches, rats, and mice. I think I’d prefer the black flies.
Ew. You’d have to wonder where they hide all those things. I really am a stupid Northerner. I’ve been hugging palm trees for years and didn’t have a clue of the vermin within.
Palm trees don’t naturally self-prune, which is why the city always comes along and removes all the dead lower leaves.
Birds know where the food source is, so they build nests there, too. Couple the critters with all the bird poop, and it can become a real mess.
And when the palm trees get really tall, pruning them is the work of professionals, and they are not cheap.
Cities around here are learning that the excessive wildlife living in palm trees and the extreme expense to keep them pruned is not worth it. If a palm tree has to be removed, it is not replaced with another palm tree. It’s replaced with a sweetgum (Liquidamber styraciflua). Landscaping on city, county, and state properties rarely now include palm trees.
Palm trees technically aren’t trees, they’re grass. That’s so funny you hate them, I totally love them. Different tastes & preferences are interesting. I liked this post & great PS removal of the trees!
Actually, palm trees are not grass. That’s old biology from decades ago. With modern DNA and genome building, palms have been proven to be trees, albeit a special type. They have been moved around over the years but are now considered the only family in the monocot order Arecales. They are listed as monocots in all my newer biology books but my oldest one, from college in 1975, has them as grasses, which most monocots are. We now know, though, that monocots can be trees, too.
Well, there you go… see what’s changed since I was in grade school? Lol.
Me, too. I remember in sixth grade running around telling people in Kingsville, Texas, that palm trees were not trees. I was so proud of myself……lol
There were major classification changes for all plants in 1980, 1998, 2003, and 2009, and we’re probably not finished.
I agree what you said about Palm trees. Beautiful shots though, Russel!
I love palm trees… it tells me the weather is warm in this city
I just open the windows to determine that………lol
hahahaha… good come back
Interesting, I did not realize that below the 10 freeway are where all the palm trees are! I thought they were characteristic throughout all of California!
Nope. They don’t like cold, wet weather.
The sunrise you share here with us is glorious–and Florida has palm trees, as well, I actually like the palmettoes on the Georgia barrier islands quite a bit. Sorry about your great dislike of palm trees. They really do know how to survive the storms in this world, you know.
I do know. As I point out to my home inspection clients when they ask me about a tall palm tree falling on their house: “Look at the videos of hurricanes and tornadoes in the South. The only thing left standing are palm trees!”
It’s late in my part of the world (3:22am) and i was, like, 0_0 when i read this: “Of course, for all you know, this picture was taken in Alaska and I added some palm trees…” It took me sometime before i get it you were kidding!
I feel you on the palm trees. A few months ago, in St. Thomas USVI they cut down these beautiful old NATIVE Mahogany trees in Havensight (a popular tourist hub) Only to plant non-native “Hollywood” Palms. It was a HUGE uproar.
Ha, I was just telling Alys at Gardening Nirvana.wordpress how I think Palm trees just scream summer shineshine….I you lived up north like me, you might think a few palm trees in the yard would be awesome. I fancy what you did with Photoshop…seamless
Lol – you hate palm trees and you live in SoCal where they put palm trees on lots of advertisements. So funny. We like palm trees here except that we spend a lot of money to plant them here and then they don’t take because we have cooler weather…so they spend more money planting. Kinda of ridiculous. Anyway, I like both of the pictures. Beautiful capture.
I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida and got cured the first time I saw a huge old oak tree in North Florida. There is no character in a palm tree!
I can so totally agree with that!
Sorry but I love palm trees. I know they don’t give shade and I agree they look like sticks but I find them romantic against the setting sun.
And now I’d better start running because I fear you’re all going to come after me with sticks…
Someone has to like them because they keep getting planted!…………lol
But I hate what they do with them at the new malls in places like Phoenix and Vegas.
What do they do?
They build huge malls that spread over many acres and plant palm trees in the car park.
That’s because researchers have discovered that palm trees can easily take the pollution that massive amounts of cars bring, and they don’t require a lot of water. The Southwest isn’t exactly blessed with a lot of water but millions of people want to live in the warm sunshing.
I didn’t know that palm trees clean the air. Interesting. Thank you.
All plants clean the air, but some are better at it than others. I have specific plants inside my house because they are great at keeping the air clean.
I know that certain house plants clean the house
Palm trees = yukky. We have one at an old holiday house we own, that was planted by someone else and we are about to cut it down…more yukky cos it will probably cost us heaps
no comment about palm trees but love the fact that you explained how you “fixed” the photo and have a before and after shot. I think that is really cool. Something else I’ll have to learn to do one day.