On the northern tip of Markham, two trees stand majestically on a hill in the middle of a farm field. The trees are a beacon, separating the farm land that lies to the north from the densly populated suburban brick work to the south.

I pass by these trees frequently and I’ve witnessed many beautiful sunrises break the horizon, showering these two trees with golden light.

From a low vantage point, the hill on which the trees are located hides the urban sprawl behind it and lets one forget, if only for a moment, the habitat fragmentation that lies so close which threatens the very livelihood of a field such as this.

I’ve photographed at this location before, focusing on just one of the trees.

That picture (and the rest of the ones from that shoot which you can view here) was taken later in the year, with the field dusted in snow and corn stalks bent, not broken.

Every year, I hope to capture the trees in autumn, as their leaves begin to change but the sky never seems to cooperate.

On this occasion, the trees were once again bare. But the sky looked promising—two distinct cloud formations moving quite quickly.

I composed the shot to dedicate a lot of the frame to the drama in the sky.

Here are two of the final images from the shot. They are five pictures were merged into one using Nik HDR Efex Pro. The first one features both of the trees, the second just one.

Twin Trees
Nikon D800 w/ 24-70 f/2.8 @ 50mm, ISO 100, f/11

Tree
Nikon D800 w/ 24-70 f/2.8 @ 70mm, ISO 100, f/11

While i was composing and taking pictures, waiting for the sun to break, I realized that the cloud movement would be good for a little Time Lapse. Since I was using my camera for bracketed exposure, I propped my iPhone up on the camera bag and let it do its magic while I worked on making some of my own. Here’s the time lapse of the sunrise that morning.