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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/7.1, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Oops
for the record, a falling tree does make a sound

Never a dull moment around here. Yesterday was nonstop hubbub with Cousin Titi's visit and her daddy's birthday. They left for home this morning, so perhaps to fill in the quiet, a 70' (21 meter) tree decided to fall for no apparent reason. It's a sumac, which Wikipedia says reaches a maximum height of less than half that, so perhaps that's why it fell.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/7.1, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
Anthony for Scale
Anthony is standing near the remaining 6' of trunk, at the far left

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 62 mm — ¹/640 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Big Mess

It just seemed to have been the tree's time. There was no storm, no wind... nothing special. Just a loud crack and, well, the sound of a tree falling, taking out a couple of other smaller trees with it along the way.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 20 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
Collateral Damage
limb from a too-near Oak that took a four-foot long strip of tree with it

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 21 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Sandbox
is under there somewhere

It fell right over the sandbox (seen here), taking out the redbud that had been shading the sandbox. Luckily no one was playing at the time.

Another photo that appeared on a blog post last year...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Playing In Front Of The Tree Last Year

Living around here, my folks are well versed in cleaning up after these things. I blogged about clearing a fallen tree a few years ago, and I'm sure I will again later this week.

The remnants of the 25"-diameter trunk were quite dynamic, with thick layers of multicolored wood....

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Thick

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Dynamic

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
Internal Layers
still pretty darn thick

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/125 sec, f/11, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Multicolored

Some large areas in the trunk had a whitish fungus or something, so that's probably why it fell, but no idea why it chose a calm, sunny day to do it.

Continued here...