Why I Love to Photograph Tree Hollows, and Why You Might, Too!

One of my favorite hobbies is taking photos of the contents (and occupants) of tree hollows (or tree cavities).

I am fortunate to live near several forested parks with trails through the trees. For whatever reason, the trees in coastal Virginia are absolutely full of hollows. I find holes of all sizes and depths in trunks and branches.

These hollows are usually the result of decay resulting from past damage such as fire, a large branch breaking, water pooling on the bark, or woodpeckers pecking holes. Eventually, the tree may grow "woundwood", somewhat similar to scar tissue in humans. What is fascinating is that tree hollows can be a big boon to the critters and bugs in the ecosystem. They provide shelter from predators. They provide a place for fungi to thrive. They provide nice, cool, dark homes to vertebrates and invertebrates.

Spider webs in the waning evening light inside a tree hollow.

But, while that's all lovely, why do I love taking time for something weird like photographing tree hollows?

It's something creepy!

When I think of children's books and movies I loved the most, they include:

The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree
The Funny Little Woman
The Goonies
All those creepy 70s and 80s kids movies that everyone says were traumatizing

From middle school onward I devoured anything I could get my hands on from R. L. Stine, Bradbury, Poe, and Lovecraft. Anything about the unknown or unknowable, whether ancient monstrous gods from the stars or creepy worlds hidden underground. I had a Norwegian great-aunt who infected me with a love for troll mythology (the tricky, frightening, oft-hidden mythological creature, not the singing, frizzy-haired monstrosity). And these days I particularly enjoy media and photography about the liminal or horrifically unexplained (e.g.: “This hole was made for me”).

To be clear I have never particularly enjoyed most of the "horror" genre - jump scares, ghosts, and demonic possessions don't really do much for me - but I loved (and still love) the hidden, mysterious, and the creepy.

As an adult in 2025, it sometimes feels like there is little left in the world that is mysterious, creepy, and exciting (or affordable) to explore. But it’s not true! There are hidden nooks and weird, gross, wonderful things all around us. But it can be hard to notice them. Isn’t that the biggest indictment of being a typical adult today!

Tree hollows are typically dark and creepy, and there is no telling what they might contain on a given day. Sometimes it’s a spider, a frog, a bird, or a mass of millipedes. Sometimes it’s just dark, soupy water or wood dust. Sometimes it’s a world of mushrooms, hidden in the dark. And what’s living there today might not be what’s living there tomorrow.

It's something fun to do with my pup

I made it a goal this year to do a lot more (and longer) walks and hikes with my pup, Lady Duchess. Lady is a Siberian Husky, and with that comes energy. Lots of energy!

Lady Duchess, the Husky, looking at a mushroom growing from a tree hollow in a small tree.

While I love our walks, I found myself sometimes a bit bored when she’s having a particularly “sniffy” day. On these occasions we don’t get far very fast. So one day I was looking around me while waiting for her to finish sniffing, and I got curious about the hole in a nearby tree. And now I have thousands of photos (mostly really bad ones) of these holes and their contents.

Lady and I have developed a solid partnership. If I am patient with her about taking time to sniff, she is (to an extent) patient with me taking photos. Sometimes she gets frustrated or a bit confused about why I am hovering over a hole in a tree with no interesting smells, but overall we have a solid agreement about sharing our time together on our walks working on very different interests.

It's something that feels "real"

(Note: this entire post is self-written. Yep, an AI-free blog post in 2025!)

In America, “real” can feel foreign, uncomfortable, and absurd. We face the ‘rock’ of generative AI making it tiring and annoying to distinguish real from slop and the ‘hard place’ of wanting to escape the monstrous shifts, cuts, and intentional decay currently altering our Government.

While it might not be for everyone, taking photos of the weird, dark contents of tree hollows requires manual effort and time, being offline, traversing beautiful scenes in nature, some physical fitness, and spending time with someone I love dearly.

It is challenging: There may be only moments to get a snap or two. I’m out varying in weather conditions. The photos are often taken in very low light and very close-up.
It is fleeting: I don’t record where I took a given picture, and that has become a conscious decision. I like something about the chance and spontaneity of a great shot. I usually do not have the time to review the photos I take until after we return home from a walk, so it is a delight to find that I captured something great.

Doing something real with a portion of my time - something away from the computer, not emulated by AI, and not pushed by influencers or pundits - has been amazing for my well-being. I feel more grounded in our world because I take time to explore the wonders that remain around me.

It's something that (initially) cost me nothing extra

All of my photos for the past couple years have been taken with the lenses on my Samsung Galaxy 24 Ultra. There are some fantastic cameras on these phones.

A couple of beautiful translucent slugs emerging in the evening from a hollow that goes entirely through the trunk of a tree.

I recently purchased a Fujifilm X-T5 **. This camera uses an APS-C sensor which is much smaller than a full-frame sensor, but much larger than the sensors on my phone. This means I will be able to capture more detail in low-light conditions than I can currently with my phone. Honestly it's more camera than I will probably ever be skilled enough to be worthy of, but it is a treat to use!

(** I should also note that buying a camera is a dangerous gateway drug to trying other types of photography. I’ve been trying my hand lately at street photography, and while I get no more than one okay shot for every hundred shutter presses, it is a lot of fun - maybe again because it involved capturing fleeting moments that you may never see again)

Now, go photograph tree hollows! Or find your thing!

Be on the lookout for the mysterious in your environment - whether in nature or an urban landscape. Find the unusual. Experience the lovely, creepy, or terrifying.

Most of all, find something “real”. Find something that allows you to spend time with friends or family. Find something to do that actually makes you happy, rather than just existing, being pulled around by politics, or “filling time”.

I can’t say whether photographing tree hollows is for you, but I hope you’ll find something as fun and fulfilling and Fey for you as this has been for me!