You count yourself fortunate when you set out on a photo trip and the weather chooses to cooperate—something that rarely happens, at least not often. This particular tree was the reason for the entire journey; I even mentioned it in a post on November 1. Yet, on my first attempt to find it, I drove straight past the tiny sign pointing the way, a marker so low to the ground it was easy to miss. The weather wasn’t encouraging either—grey skies, scattered showers, the sort of day that can dull a photographer’s hopes.

But then I paused. Sitting for a few minutes, watching the sky shift, I noticed a break in the clouds forming. Soon enough, as I lined up one of the few frames I’d get, the sun slipped through at just the right moment. By mid-morning I didn’t want the harshness of full sunlight—just a touch, enough to give the scene some drama without blowing out the highlights. The upper canopy of the tree was still thick with leaves, and including it would have thrown the composition off-balance with too much empty sky.

Here’s the original photograph for reference: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/134.1975/

You can see how the tree earned its name. The Australian outback can be unforgiving, but on this occasion, I was lucky.