For Erik Gehring, the Arnold Arboretum was a natural choice.
The father of two and part-time nature photographer moved to Roslindale in 2005 and was looking for a special place where he could capture the beauty of nature, somewhere that could set him apart from other photographers.
The Arboretum was perfect. He already frequented the park since it was a short walk from his house on Walter Street, and by 2007 he had amassed his own library of pictures.
In late 2008, Gehring released his first “Trees of Boston” calendar for 2009 and has created one every year since then. Trees are chosen for the month in which they’re at their most beautiful.
“It was a landscape I loved shooting in,” Gehring said about the Arboretum. “It’s close by (and there are) fantastic photographic opportunities.”
Gehring’s parents instilled a love of nature in him as a young child. His parents took him and his siblings on family vacations to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, Yellowstone in Wyoming, and the Canadian Rockies.
They also took him to Kenya when he was 12 years old, to see wildlife that they were afraid “was going to be disappearing,” Gehring said.
Gehring and his brothers used their own “rinky-dink Kodaks” during those trips, and watched their father take photos of the majestic scenery.
But photography never became more than a hobby as Gehring went on to college and became a manager at a limousine business afterward. After 10 years, however, Gehring quit the limousine business, without a plan for what to do next.
“I was scared, I didn’t know what … I was going to do,” he said.
His enthusiasm for nature he had since childhood led the way. Gehring found himself volunteering at environmental organizations and writing press releases and articles for them. Sometimes he brought along his camera, too.
Soon enough, Gehring was photographing events for organizations like the Environmental League of Massachusetts, AltWheels, an alternative transportation organization, and the Charles River Watershed Association.
“That’s the way that things have gone … I get involved, and one things leads to another,” he said. “Things have sort of developed and grown organically.”
Shooting pictures at events for environmental organizations is not the same as shooting pictures in the environment, however, and Gehring returned to his childhood settings of the Green and White Mountains in Vermont and New Hampshire to find inspiration.
Soon, he realized that he wouldn’t have to go so far.
“I would be out hiking with my wife,” Gehring explained about his early ventures into the Arboretum. “I’d find something interesting to shoot, and she’d be wandering off on her own, eventually. I felt a little bit guilty about that.”
He became a familiar face, eventually teaching a class at the Arboretum, “Photography for Landscape Designers,” in the fall of 2008. He had a show of his work later in the year.
Eventually, by 2007, he collected enough of his own images of the Arboretum to make his idea of a calendar a reality. He released his first calendar at the end of 2008, and sales have only increased since then, with last year’s calendar selling over 1,000 copies.
“The Arboretum is my favorite place to be shooting, because it’s what I know,” said Gehring. “I know the landscape so well, and I know the trees so well now.”
While some input, including the title of the calendar, “Trees of Boston,” was given by Arboretum staff, the calendar is entirely Gehring’s project: From initial idea, to development, to final product.
“It’s gotten very good feedback,” Gehring said, noting that he had some orders from Maine and New York City. “People love the Arboretum, even in far-flung places.”
The calendar is available in stores around Greater Boston, including Pazzo Books on 1898a Centre St. in West Roxbury, Birch St. House and Garden on 760 South St. in Roslindale Village, Allandale Farm on 259 Allandale Road and Brookline Booksmith on 279 Harvard St., Brookline.
For a full listing of stores please visit Gehring’s website, http://erikgehring.com/. You can also purchase the calendar directly from his website, and browse more of his Arboretum pictures there.
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