Stripped Cork Oaks Under Noon Glare in Alentejo

Hard coastal glare flattens the landscape under a high noon sun, turning the cork oak trunks into stark, vertical silhouettes. The bark has been harvested, revealing pale, textured surfaces that contrast sharply with the dark, shadowed crevices of the stripped wood. Dramatic clouds gather overhead, their undersides heavy and gray, casting shifting patches of shadow across the dry, golden grass. The trees stand in a rhythmic line, their rounded canopies lost in the bright wash of the sky. Deep shadows pool at the base of the trunks, showing the rough, flaked texture of the exposed bark against the smooth, sun-bleached earth. The scene stretches wide, defined by the rigid alignment of the trees and the heavy, textured clouds above.