Adam Gibbs's Image

Much of the area around Port Renfrew (the start of the West Coast Trail), on the west coast of Canada’s Vancouver Island, has been heavily logged.

So for Adam, this miniature Douglas fir growing out of a stump in the middle of Fairy Lake was symbolic. ‘It always amazes me how resilient nature is and what a tenacious existence some plants live.’ It’s not uncommon for saplings to take up residence on another tree or log, but Adam was fascinated by the way this one had used a submerged Douglas fir stump as a nurse log. ‘To me, the little tree looked as though it had been nurtured by a bonsai master.’ Adam focused in on it to exclude the vegetation around the lake and, waiting for a mirror-still moment, used the reflection of its surroundings as the backdrop.