Guy, you are suffering from the same, yet unnamed, syndrome with which all other folks who attempt to capture the majestic beauty of trees through photography are afflicted.

Trees, above all other plants or animals, seem to be unique in their beauty and majesty. I've given it much thought and not being a photographer by training or education, I have trouble defining the conundrum.

However it appears to me that the beauty of "a tree" is a complex mixture of its surroundings with which it blends in a rare ability to dominate its particular space and mini-ecosystem without being domineering.

Additionally, a tree is not just a painting that can be viewed in its entirety as a painting from afar but must be consumed and digested, if you will, in its majesty of individual brush strokes, its supporting infrastructure, its height, its breath, its depth, its intricacies of minutia and yet at the same time its overall nature of existence as formed in the recesses of the beholders mind, heart and being.

My summation is; "it is hard to photograph a tree because trees cannot be adequately photographed". --BJF