Photograph the same tree every week

This takes about ten minutes a week and no equipment beyond your phone. You photograph one tree through the seasons, starting with fall: the same photo of it, from the same spot, every week. Fall changes a tree faster than you notice day to day, and this is how you see it. By December you have the whole season in one scroll.

Choose a tree to photograph through the seasons

The best tree is one you walk past anyway, so the habit costs you nothing. A few things help:

• It changes colour. A maple, oak, ginkgo, birch or beech shows a lot more than an evergreen.
• You can stand in the same place. A tree on a path, a park, outside your window or on your route to class or work is ideal.
• It’s visible from a distance. A whole tree against the sky tells the story better than a close-up of a branch.
• It’s somewhere you’re allowed to be. Don’t stand on private land or in the road to get your shot.

If you can, start before the leaves turn. A first photo in green makes the later ones much better. If the leaves have already started, begin anyway: a half-turned tree is a fine first frame.

Fix your frame

The photos only work as a set if each one matches the last. Decide on three things the first time:

1. Where you stand. Pick a mark you can find again, like a paving line, a bench, a lamp post or a gate. Stand on it every time.
2. How you frame it. Keep the whole tree in the shot with a bit of room above the top. Switch on your phone’s grid lines, and line the trunk up against a vertical line.
3. How you hold the phone. Same orientation, same zoom and, if you can, same height. Landscape or portrait, but not both.

Then take the first photo and open it before you take the next one. Comparing the new frame with last week’s is the simplest way to keep them lined up.

Make it a routine

The weekly rhythm is the point, so tie it to something that already happens:

• Pick one day and one rough time, for example Sunday afternoon or your Monday walk to class.
• Set a repeating reminder on your phone.
• Make a dedicated album for the tree on day one, so the photos don’t get lost in your camera roll.

Light changes a lot through the day, so try to take the photo at about the same time. If the weather’s bad one week, take the photo anyway. A grey, rainy week is part of the story, and a missing week leaves a gap.

Things that go wrong

• The angle drifts. You stood a few feet to the left and the tree looks different. Go back to your mark and use last week’s photo to line up.
• Exposure jumps around. Phones adjust to bright skies and dark leaves differently each time. Tap on the tree to focus before you shoot, and keep the setting steady if your camera lets you.
• You forget. Take the photo as soon as you remember, even if it’s off schedule, and carry on. One late week doesn’t ruin the set.
• The tree is removed or fenced off. It happens. Pick a second tree early on as a back-up, and you won’t lose the project.

Look for the details

You’re taking the same photo, but you’ll see different things each week. Notice which branches turn first, whether the top of the tree changes before the bottom, and the week the leaves start to fall rather than just turn. Squirrels, birds, frost on the grass and the angle of the sun all end up in your frame. You may find that the best week isn’t the peak colour, but the one with half a tree of orange and half bare branches.

Put it together

When the leaves are down, or in the first week of December, open the album and scroll. You’ll see the tree go from green to gold or red to bare. If you want to share it:

• Make a collage in a grid, a few weeks across and a couple of rows down.
• Turn the photos into a short slideshow or time-lapse, a couple of frames a second.
• Keep it simple and put the first and last photo side by side.

You can also keep going into winter, if you like the habit. A bare tree through snow, rain and the first buds in spring is an easy sequel.

Make it a fall week

Pair it with another season idea. Take your weekly photo on the way to a foliage hike or after you press leaves from a tree nearby. You’ll have the whole fall in a handful of photos, and it only took you ten minutes at a time.