A44_7951
Brazil Nut tree (Bertholletia excelsa)
As the summit of a mountain draws the climber, so the top of the Brazil Nut tree draws the climber to the queen’s crown. The proud Brazil Nut tree is the noble tree of ancient times, the era of the great Brazil Nut trees groves. What we see today are just the remnants of a forgotten time. There was a time when everything was in harmony: the synchronized relationship between humans, animals and plants resulted, in these continuous forests with infinite horizons, in an abundance that reigned generously. Brazil Nut trees were a fundamental food that did not even need to be cultivated, they simply fell from centuries-old trees, residents gathered the nutritious fruits and left a part for the animals, who took care of the seed dispersal. In particular, the agouti (Dasyprocta aguti) still carries the coconut-like fruit far away and gnaws at the hard shell for hours on end, until the ingenious container releases its precious jewels. After satisfying its belly, the rodent buries the remaining nuts… which will become future Brazil Nut trees. For centuries native populations have enjoyed the benevolent and shared gifs offered to them just by respecting the relationships of the natural network.
Today, the Brazil Nut groves are dwindling and no longer reproduce as they used to. I wonder why? A punishing, scary and separating god arrived in the caravels of the European colonizers. Invaders ignored and ignore the magical relationships of the natural network. Where there were tribes, where the land belonged to everyone, now there are greedy landowners who fence their ‘properties’, burn the life of a huge biodiversity, unique, to plant a meager grass that destroys the soil. What matters is the cattle for export, what doesn’t even cross the mind are the masses of people living in poverty and the priceless wealth turning to dust.
In the remaining Brazil Nut groves, who knows, the residents don’t even eat the nuts anymore, they harvest them all, all of them, to sell in the markets of opulence and waste. Nothing is left for the agoutis, who have always planted for future generations, worse yet, the rodents are now hunted to compensate for the lack of protein… there is no longer any conversation with Mother Earth, each one for himself.
Stop!
On this climb to the top of the Brazil Nut tree, I am grateful for the existence of this incredible being, this relationship between the human and the tree tries to establish a conversation, reach an understanding. But – as excelsa suggests – this cannot be ruled by the mind.
The Brazil Nut tree asks for purity, serenity, communion…
So I clear the thought, focusing only on the great challenge to the force of gravity. The resistance of the branches, the climbing equipment and techniques are planned just like the flight plan of an aircraft: everything needs to be defined before taking off. The rope that holds me is the connection. It’s the simple emotion of adventure that fills every cell, breaking down worries and all the barriers of opposition. Blood circulates freely and seething in the climber’s body. Well planned, calm and attentive, climbing trees with ropes is qualified not by the adrenaline of a radical practice, but by the peaceful exercise of contemplation, especially when it happens in a tropical forest in its full splendor.
More than adrenaline, the climber experiences the effect of serotonin, the neurotransmitter hormone of happiness, a state of prolonged euphoria in a night of deep rest and colorful lucid dreams. They are dreams of the great Brazil Nut groves of the future, which appear in the forest like tall columns of a temple, the Parthenon of the Amazon, generous giants, venerated and respected, pollinators buzzing among the promising flowers, agouti jumping and busy at their feet watching over future generations, humans harvesting only what is necessary. It is the beginning of a project.
A44_7951 – Leonide Principe
Equipment: NIKON D2X with lens AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED set at 86 mm – Exposition: ISO: 100 – Aperture: 4 – Shutter: 1/60 – Program: Normal – Exp. Comp.: -1.3,
Original digital capture of a real life scene –
Original file size: 4320px x 2868px
Location: Abra144 (Presidente Figueiredo – Amazonas Brazil)
Date: June 5, 2007 – Time: 5:32:42 PM
Collection: Treeclimbing – Persons shown: climber
Keywords:
escalada em árvores, Recreational Tree Climbing, treeclimbing, ecoturismo, ecotourism, TURISMO, TOURISM, castanheira, Bertholletia excelsa, Brazil Nut tree, árvore emergente, big trees, emergent tree, árvores, trees, FLORA, plantas, plants, Abra144, Presidente Figueiredo, Amazonas, Amazônia, Amazon, Amazonian, Brazil, Brasil, Brazilian, América do Sul, South America
EN1 Brazil nut tree climbing A44_7951
PT1 Escalada da castanheira A44_7951
© – Leonide Principe, all right reserved
www.leonideprincipe.photos
CT10_1024a
Made for each other
Red-rumped agouti (Dasyprocta agouti)
The Brazilian popular name is ‘cutia’. This humble rodent is most responsible for the propagation and regeneration of the Brazil Nut tree in the Amazon. I lived in the Amazon for 33 years, 23 of which I lived outside the civilized world, in an area of primary pristine forest. There I had the opportunity to observe some of the infinite aspects that make wildlife organize itself in a wonderfully intelligent way.
My starting point is not the productivity of the Brazil Nut tree nor the commercial potential of the product, I have already seen enough examples of the disasters that this type of approach can trigger.
The preferred approach is the admiration and pure existence of one species (the Brazil Nut tree) and the intelligent relationships with another species (the agouti), which contribute most efficiently to the prosperity of the ecosystem, when humans allow it. It’s not just the single symbiotic event I want to focus on, it’s the broader Project carried out over millennia by a conscious sapience that eludes human comprehension. This is the starting point, through which the perception of details can flow, always carefully kept in the broader context of the Project, defined in the simplest way only as: nature.
Nature Projet and Brazil Nut tree Project are included in each other and do not dispense that healthy enchantment that only nature knows how to provide. Though not very popular these days, feeling is an integral part of my research method. And what authorizes me in this respect is the simple observation that the human-nature relationship is terrible.
Recorded in an area of forest, at the foot of a Brazil Nut tree, the short video shown is testimony to the way in which this intelligent process unfolds. The Brazil Nut tree and the agouti are designed to fit together. The hole in the urchin’s navel is where the agouti’s tooth fits perfectly, allowing it to move the heavy and voluminous fruit. The excelsa makes it very clear that it would be pointless to plant it at the base of the mother Brazil Nut tree. For a new tree to thrive, the seed must be buried in a more remote area, preferably without other Brazil Nut trees nearby. The agouti knows and carries the hedgehog to a more appropriate place. There, the rodent gnaws for hours until he reaches the delicious, rich nuts, to gorge himself, and then plants the rest. The agouti knows that the next generations will benefit from this simple civilizing gesture. Maybe modern humans will learn a little from this. Because, let it be said, ancient humans knew and respected what the Brazil Nut tree knows and what the agouti knows. For that reason alone, ancient humans enjoyed the easy abundance of large Brazil Nut groves. What used to be easy abundance is now called, with concern, food safety.
CT10_1024a – Leonide Principe
Equipment: Reconix UltraFire with lens set at 5 mm – Camera installed in the forest, fixed at the foot of a tree, at an average height of 50 cm (1.64 ft. – Still image extracted from a video
Original digital capture of a real life scene
Original file size: 1920px x 1080px
Location Taken: Abra144 (Presidente Figueiredo – Amazonas Brazil)
Date Taken:
Collection: Camera-trap Monitoring – Persons shown: none
Keywords:
cutia, Dasyprocta agouti, red-rumped agouti, rodents, mamíferos, mammals, FAUNA, animals, camera-trap, camera-armadilha, monitoramento da fauna, fauna monitoring, Grade144, Grid144, PESQUISA, RESEARCH, abra144, Presidente Figueiredo, Amazonas, Amazônia, Amazon, Amazonian, Brazil, Brasil, Brazilian, América do Sul, South America
EN Made for each other CT10__1024a
PT Feitos um para o outro CT10__1024a
© – Leonide Principe, all right reserved
https://leonideprincipe.photos
A44_7943
Vertical Brazil nut tree
Vertical framing is almost always a necessity in tree climbing shots, as verticality is already intrinsically expressed in the action that is intended to be illustrated. The cover image opens horizontally because it wants to show the landscape, the forest is the protagonist that shares the scene with the Brazil nut tree and the climber. This vertical image instead focuses more on the tree and the action that is shown on top of it. The tree completely occupies the frame.
A44_7943 – Leonide Principe
Equipment: NIKON D2X with lens AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED set at 140 mm – Exposition: ISO: 100 – Aperture: 4 – Shutter: 1/60 – Program: Normal – Exp. Comp.: -1.0,
Original digital capture of a real life scene –
Original file size: 2868px x 4320px
Location: Abra144 (Presidente Figueiredo – Amazonas Brazil)
Date: June 5, 2007 – Time: 5:29:27 PM
Collection: Treeclimbing – Persons shown: climber
Keywords:
escalada em árvores, Recreational Tree Climbing, treeclimbing, ecoturismo, ecotourism, TURISMO, TOURISM, castanheira, Bertholletia excelsa, Brazil Nut tree, árvore emergente, big trees, emergent tree, árvores, trees, FLORA, plantas, plants, Abra144, Presidente Figueiredo, Amazonas, Amazônia, Amazon, Amazonian, Brazil, Brasil, Brazilian, América do Sul, South America
EN2 Vertical Brazil nut tree A44_7943
PT2 Castanheira vertical A44_7943
© – Leonide Principe, all right reserved
www.leonideprincipe.photos
A44_7952
True Cover
In this third photograph, the framing evolves into the golden ratio and leaves a space on the left for the text of a possible magazine cover. And it was with this important function that it was used by an English cosmetics company. And of course, it was with this purpose that the image was constructed. There is a fundamental detail in the relationship between the stock photographer and his client. What the client desires must be kept in high consideration, especially if that request cannot be fulfilled. This request goes directly into the production line and seeks an opportunity to enter the archive. When the printed paper magazine was the unquestionable dominant form of mass consumption reading, these glorious publications were on every street corner newsstand. The study of magazine covers and layouts like the National Geographic (from the United States), Geo from Germany (Germany), Terra from Brazil, Ícaro (Varig’s in-flight magazine), and so many others that flourished at that time, was a weekly and monthly routine for the nature photographer.
And so, the true cover is presented discreetly at the end of this article to the persistent reader who nurtures the idea of a more refined photograph.
A44_7952 – Leonide Principe
Equipment: NIKON D2X with lens AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED set at 200 mm – Exposition: ISO: 100 – Aperture: 4 – Shutter: 1/60 – Program: Normal – Exp. Comp.: -1.3,
Original digital capture of a real life scene –
Original file size: 4320px x 2868px
Location: Abra144 (Presidente Figueiredo – Amazonas Brazil)
Date: June 5, 2007 – Time: 5:33:12 PM
Collection: Treeclimbing – Persons shown: climber
Keywords:
escalada em árvores, Recreational Tree Climbing, treeclimbing, ecoturismo, ecotourism, TURISMO, TOURISM, castanheira, Bertholletia excelsa, Brazil Nut tree, árvore emergente, big trees, emergent tree, árvores, trees, FLORA, plantas, plants, Abra144, Presidente Figueiredo, Amazonas, Amazônia, Amazon, Amazonian, Brazil, Brasil, Brazilian, América do Sul, South America
EN3 True cover A44_7952
PT3 Capa verdadeira A44_7952
© – Leonide Principe, all right reserved
www.leonideprincipe.site
Version 0.3 – 2nd text edition, no proofreading, not yet
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.