I’ve visited and photographed these trees many times. I’m actually kinda in love with them. I like to refer to them as the tree family on Route 66, with the two adults in the front and the children in the background playing. The tree family lives on a brick stretch of Route 66 in Auburn Illinois, a popular place for Route 66 travels to visit on their journey.

This take on the tree family is presented in infrared black and white and was photographed exactly 4 years ago. Infrared photography (IR) has interested me since my early days in school. It’s unique rendering of tones gives the scene sort of a wintery look, and feels romantic to me. The sky absorbs IR light so it tends to go to a darker tone where the blue sky shows though, while foliage reflects IR light and is rendered a lighter tone, compared to traditional black and white’s middle tones rendering. I’ve explored this type of photography quite a bit, an excellent example of this may be seen in my Romantic Images of Wade Lagoon Series.