One day, a few years ago, whilst walking to get my lunch in Battersea, South London, I spotted a discarded Christmas tree on the street. Just ten days after it had taken centre stage in someone’s living room, illuminated with glittering fairy lights and crowded with wrapped gifts, it had been strewn, without a second thought, into a the long, empty, grey London street. Something about the way it lay there, so lifeless, reminded me of the forensic photography I’d studied during my degree, so I snapped this sad tree, and the many others I have seen since.

Since then I have amassed a few hundred Christmas tree images – friends and family love the images (some sad, some quirky, some a little ‘Where’s Wally?’) so now it’s time to share with everyone else too.

I’ve set up this blog, How Lonely are Your Branches, as a means to share my photographs and hopefully to inspire you to post some too. I want it to be a tongue in cheek post-Christmas portfolio but also to make a more serious comment on the increasingly throwaway nature of our society. These trees that we see unceremoniously dumped down side roads, in the middle of roundabouts and floating down the Thames could have all gone to better uses – which I’ll be posting here too.

This year there will be around eight million Christmas trees in UK homes. If all these were recycled to make ethanol, it would fuel a car to drive 198,400,000 miles. That’s the equivalent of driving around the world 7,967 times!

So, I hope you've enjoyed your festive season and got creative with that tinsel – and remember, a tree is not just for Christmas…