This is a job you don't want

After 10 months of unemployment, I want a job pretty badly, but I've found a job I definitely don't want. The job title is "climber," and Gerardo Torres Saavedra has it all to himself.

All to himself is also the description of how he works, about 100 feet above the ground at the top of a tall pine tree. Gerardo is the climber for Batts Tree Service and Landscaping. This week he has been at the very top of several pine trees in the front and back yards of the Lemaire residence on Clyde Avenue. On a walk one afternoon I stood mesmerized by the tiny image of a man at the top of that pine tree, and my stomach turned somersaults when he sawed off the topmost 8 feet of tree and the remainder of the tree, which he was hanging onto, swayed back and forth as the tree gave up the weight off its crown. Sorry I didn't have the camera, or a video camera, when that happened. I caught these photos of him later, as he worked on a different but no smaller pine tree.

The climber

works with a safety harness, some ropes and spikes that dig into the tree. And you couldn't get me to do that for any price. Gerardo seems nonchalant about the task, even in 90-some-degree heat. While he's up there, he handles a roaring chain saw, which is clipped to his belt, and some ropes that ease the cut branches to the ground. There's nothing between him and a greasy spot on the ground than his safety harness and his skill.

These photos were taken with a 55 to 200 mm lens, so that gives you some idea how high up he was when the 200 mm lens could zoom no closer than this. Here are some other photos to give you an idea of just how high up he was. Keep in mind that these are not wide-angle views; they're telephoto.

Tree climber is not a job for me.