Unfortunately they only post the top 2 or three trees on the JAL site. I don't know if it was different this year. We do have one of John's trees in the gallery here, though:
http://pictures.bonsaitalk.com/showphoto.php?photo=1087
It's a fairly young cork oak. Some of the things John does is after wiring small twigs, wrap that branch around a chopstick to get a corkscrew in it. The terminals don't matter so much as it will be cut back to the first turn and a half or so later.
A whole lot of clip and grow is involved. Normally you point the terminal bud in the direction you want the tree to grow, and with most plants that is toward the outside of the plant. With an oak, however, to get that gnarly twisting, you sometimes need to direct the growth in the opposite direction from what's immediately logical.
I wish I had seen the presentation John did on landscape and bonsai oaks at the GSBF convention. Maybe Al or someone else caught it? I saw just a couple of slides when John came by to borrow my projector, but it looked interesting.
I found this book
Oaks of California that's full of interesting pictures of oaks in their native habitat.
It's inexpensive in paperback, new about $23. But some guy has a $108 price tag on a hardback first printing that originally sold for $29.95! That seems extreme for a modern title. It's a good thing I collect information and not books per se.
I have a couple of Q. agrifolia, Cork oak (Q. suber), a Red oak, and a little Yaupon holly that is on its way to being an oak of sorts.
Regards,
Matt