Anasazi Places Cottonwood Dark Water Ghost Light Horses Meeting Sky Patina Sourdough Trail Tepee Creek Waterfalls Winter Water		I'd hate to say that any tree lacks character, but cottonwoods seem to have more than their share, and they've earned it the hard way. Here in the dry West, their drinking habits confine them to watercourses such as rivers, streams, ditches, or the rare long-standing lake or pond. As rainfall is fickle, most any older cottonwood will bear scars where drought-weakened limbs have blown down, or overlook sibling trunks fallen to the ground. Some cottonwoods become (or perhaps are born) loners, but in groups they are convivial, linking branches or leaning across toward one another. Whether of individuals or clans, I've come to think of these photographs as more environmental portraits than landscapes.		Images