gerald beranek

[Tree Machine]

Treemachine, get your lips off Beranek's ass, you're starting to embarrass yourself.

Taken in the spirit in which that was intended.

And I would go as far as to say, in Beranek's journey, it was clear to him that documenting this work and the people who do it, so Jerry has to become a professional photographer, way in the day before cameras were easy, like today. Back then, to get great photographs you needed upscale equipment and you needed to know about F-stop and apurature settings. Telephoto lenses this gear costs MONEY and Jerry took on the cost and has brought it to us in a variety of organized media.

Jerry was always on the forefront of video technology and took the time and effort to video-document the best of the best for several decades. Video has not always been as easy as it is today.

His DVD's show that depth. Living there his whole life, your senses are keen as to how to best present arborist / logging work to guys like us.

I'm not butt-kissin. I'm more recognizing that given all the effort he's put into producing this material, I felt good supporting it, like buying art and education all in one. Just the landscape out there in northern California, it just overly impresses a midwestern boy like myself.


I watch that cat climb and I get to thinking he could very well be the #3 world's best climber, right behind Beowulf, and then me.

(Uhhh, LOL?)

 

[beowulf343]

Taken in the spirit in which that was intended.

And I would go as far as to say, in Beranek's journey, it was clear to him that documenting this work and the people who do it, so Jerry has to become a professional photographer, way in the day before cameras were easy, like today. Back then, to get great photographs you needed upscale equipment and you needed to know about F-stop and apurature settings. Telephoto lenses this gear costs MONEY and Jerry took on the cost and has brought it to us in a variety of organized media.

Jerry was always on the forefront of video technology and took the time and effort to video-document the best of the best for several decades. Video has not always been as easy as it is today.

His DVD's show that depth. Living there his whole life, your senses are keen as to how to best present arborist / logging work to guys like us.

I'm not butt-kissin. I'm more recognizing that given all the effort he's put into producing this material, I felt good supporting it, like buying art and education all in one. Just the landscape out there in northern California, it just overly impresses a midwestern boy like myself.


I watch that cat climb and I get to thinking he could very well be the #3 world's best climber, right behind Beowulf, and then me.

(Uhhh, LOL?)

Lol, that's what i always liked about you on this site-a good sense of humor.

Ok, first off, i'm not any kind of ranked climber. I have no doubt you personally are a better overall climber than myself. I'm not even the best all around in my outfit or even my immediate family-i'm just very good at my specific discipline. And as for innovation, most are better than myself since when i find a technique that i like and works well, i tend to stick with it.

I see where you are coming from with this post. Very well said by the way, wish i was half as eloquent. My problem with Beranek is that he seems to be the gold standard. He is very good, but the best? Not in my book, sorry. I think he was the best at coming up with the ways and means of recording his work. He may have a better publicist or agent getting his name out there than most tree men. I have not doubt he's done the most to get what we do and how we do it out to the masses. And i know he's humble, i've met the guy and talked to him too. It's just every time i hear someone says that he's the best climber ever, i cringe a little. And while your argument for the price of his literature makes sense, it just rubs me the wrong way a little bit.

I'll try to explain why, maybe. My family has been involved in the industry for generations. My great grandfather and grandfather both worked as high climbers out west. I've heard my grandpa's stories since i was a kid and always wanted to do it. So a couple years ago, i took about a year and a half off before settling down and getting married, contacted some climbers i knew and became a tramp climber. I honestly could not believe the response and support i got. I worked with a guy in Florida that could do things with rope i didn't know were even possible. Rigging in Oregon that changed the way i do things. Crane techniques in California that i'm still trying to duplicate. Tips and tricks and techniques from guys who, (and this may be heresy) are better climbers or more innovative than Beranek. (Of course not all of them, some were pretty hacky, but i personally met five guys that i'd consider the best climbers in the world-and this from someone who grew up around men climbing trees.) Finally coming to my point, these guys are unknown, if they had the foresight to do what Beranek did record wise, would they have become the gold standard? And every one of these guys were willing to take a guy who sent them a call or an email sight unseen, and gladly work with me without my having to pay $79.95 for the pleasure of watching them work. Heck, i got to do more than watch, you wouldn't believe it treemachine. That time was the best of my life.

Anyway, Beranek was/is extremely important to the way tree work is done and looked at. But there are others, dare i say more knowledgeable and more innovative that have continued building in relative anonymity on the foundation that Mr. Beranek has laid.

 

[treevet]

Taken in the spirit in which that was intended.

And I would go as far as to say, in Beranek's journey, it was clear to him that documenting this work and the people who do it, so Jerry has to become a professional photographer, way in the day before cameras were easy, like today. Back then, to get great photographs you needed upscale equipment and you needed to know about F-stop and apurature settings. Telephoto lenses this gear costs MONEY and Jerry took on the cost and has brought it to us in a variety of organized media.

Jerry was always on the forefront of video technology and took the time and effort to video-document the best of the best for several decades. Video has not always been as easy as it is today.

His DVD's show that depth. Living there his whole life, your senses are keen as to how to best present arborist / logging work to guys like us.

I'm not butt-kissin. I'm more recognizing that given all the effort he's put into producing this material, I felt good supporting it, like buying art and education all in one. Just the landscape out there in northern California, it just overly impresses a midwestern boy like myself.


I watch that cat climb and I get to thinking he could very well be the #3 world's best climber, right behind Beowulf, and then me.

(Uhhh, LOL?)

It is real nice when you can feel like that about another person. I used to feel that way about Shigo before he passed. I never really found tree work that difficult to need a mentor.

You get some help from the salts early on and then just kinda figure the rest out on your own over the years. Forums and videos such as Mr. Beranek's speed the process up for the new guys over the last few years I suppose. Equipment innovations have made the process much easier and safer.

 

[jefflovstrom]

Aw!, Group hug!
Jeff :censored:

 

[Tree Machine]

OK, group hug.

Anyway, Beranek was/is extremely important to the way tree work is done and looked at. But there are others, dare i say more knowledgeable and more innovative that have continued building in relative anonymity on the foundation that Mr. Beranek has laid.

I don't doubt that a bit. And I will admit, my referring to him as a #1, or a 'best climber ever' is not at play here. That is LOL'd along with me being #1. After reading Beowulf's bio, I could rightly be #2 behind his Granddaddy.

LOL​

It is real nice when you can feel like that about another person. I used to feel that way about Shigo before he passed. I never really found tree work that difficult to need a mentor.

Well, some people go far out of their way in an effort to teach to others. Shigo gave his entire life and career to this pursuit, specifically , more or less, for us.

Beranek has done much the same. The difference is Shigo is academia and was funded and paid to do all that he did. His passion for it carried him and his grad students to the pinnacle in the research and applied biology ranks.

Jerry, I'm pretty certain, that he self-funded all the capturing and editing and production costs himself, and did it very much as a labor of love so it could be shared.

That is where I'm coming from. Just that the work deserves to be recognized. Now, PERSONALLY, I have little interest in getting The Working Climber, vol.1 and 2, but for Bayard, he may find the best way to learn and the fastest way to see new technical details is to watch it on his home TV during crap weather. I don't know, but then you weigh the level of instruction with that of higher education to learn the same stuff, $150 becomes a very reasonably affordable and attainable. If you are serious about this profession, like all of us here in this discussion, we go to classes, events, expos and conventions and we pay through the nose to do that. $150 for a fundamental early building block for an early guy, this would be for him.

I appreciate, more than anything, the effort put forth to create the images and video, and the work assembling, editing. I dabble in that enough to understand how time-intensive it can be. What he got out of it, in the end, is some very highly polished and professionally presented material that is just out of this world amazing.

 

[tree MDS]

OK, group hug.




I don't doubt that a bit. And I will admit, my referring to him as a #1, or a 'best climber ever' is not at play here. That is LOL'd along with me being #1. After reading Beowulf's bio, I could rightly be #2 behind his Granddaddy.

LOL​

Well, some people go far out of their way in an effort to teach to others. Shigo gave his entire life and career to this pursuit, specifically , more or less, for us.

Beranek has done much the same. The difference is Shigo is academia and was funded and paid to do all that he did. His passion for it carried him and his grad students to the pinnacle in the research and applied biology ranks.

Jerry, I'm pretty certain, that he self-funded all the capturing and editing and production costs himself, and did it very much as a labor of love so it could be shared.

That is where I'm coming from. Just that the work deserves to be recognized. Now, PERSONALLY, I have little interest in getting The Working Climber, vol.1 and 2, but for Bayard, he may find the best way to learn and the fastest way to see new technical details is to watch it on his home TV during crap weather. I don't know, but then you weigh the level of instruction with that of higher education to learn the same stuff, $150 becomes a very reasonably affordable and attainable. If you are serious about this profession, like all of us here in this discussion, we go to classes, events, expos and conventions and we pay through the nose to do that. $150 for a fundamental early building block for an early guy, this would be for him.

I appreciate, more than anything, the effort put forth to create the images and video, and the work assembling, editing. I dabble in that enough to understand how time-intensive it can be. What he got out of it, in the end, is some very highly polished and professionally presented material that is just out of this world amazing.

Does he narrate in that monotonous pbs style voice?

 

[Tree Machine]

That's just Jerry' voice. Deep, Low. Dude's got big lungs.
Not big in the sense of John Paul Sanborn, whose lungs are about as large as a small Volkswagon.


This is not to diminish the works of any of the others out there. Treevet mentions Shigo. His daughter has done exceptional work in pulling together his lifelong collection of material, sorting, organizing and placing it on DVD.
What a job that would be, Whew!

Bayard, you must sometime get this disc. Decay is so very central to what we do a lot of times.