I'd like to try a place where people can show what it is they are pruning. Obviously this is catch up pruning, where regular pruning wouldn't (or shouldn't) really show up.
Below are two photos of a pioneer apple tree in Bandon Oregon probably over 100 years old:
Before Pruning 
After Pruning
The next two photos are of a 50 year old semi dwarf apple tree in Bandon Oregon:
Before Pruning
After Pruning[code]
A photo of some more trees in this same pioneer orchard:
Bob
Bandon, Oregon
Boy that's a lot of work! It's nice to know that you won't have to do that much work every year! Yes, many people use apple for a barbecue.
John S
PDX OR
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Bob, top tree … I drive by a lot of them, due to years of neglect they’re all kinds of work! In the second photo it appears you can now ‘climb into it’ and begin working toward the “fine pruning†at the outer limbs, of course working from a ladder further out …though you’ll likely need the sixteen footer 
Second tree (4th photo) – very nice! It’s great when you’ve got ‘so much’ to work with …to a degree… cuz you can leave the best parts. Makes me nervous visualizing you inside that thicket with the chainsaw… but I know how it feels ~ and it can make a lot quicker work, especially when dicing up the removed limbs. I’d just get after the last of those wild uprights, though the base of the now beautifully ‘vase shaped’ tree is looking great.
The fifth and final photo looks like a beautiful setting, if loaded with deer, elk, raccoons… And it’s obvious those trees are plenty salvageable. How far inland from the actual ocean are they? It will be interesting to see what kind of a fruit set they get, assuming the necessary pollinators are still among them. …though I’ve been pruning the last two days, and considering it again today – photo
# 3 had me ready to dive right in - too 
Viron,
Thanks so much for the input. Honestly I was afraid to work on the tops of these much as that's where all the live healthy looking branches are. Granted they are way way out of reach for spraying, thinning, and even picking. I guess I'll go back up and work those tops down some this year rather than waiting.
This site is about a mile inland.
What many people do not realize is how vastly different just one mile inland is. Sometimes it is a20 degrees warmer during the summer, nd never as windy either. Down out of the wind, we enjoy our own microclimate while people out on the bluff are sandblasted and salt sprayed we enjoy a vastly nicer climate. It's weird to be at 74f in a tshirt and shorts at home and not realize Bandon itself might at the same time be blowing hard from the north (during summer) and only 54f.
Ooh... lots of blue sky out there - gotta get going!
Bob
This is a before and after photo of a sad little plumb tree. Not sure what kind. I'm told it hasn't had any fruit on it for a few years and so it was ignored. Pretty sorry sight isn't it? The blackberry vines were way more work than the plumb tree itself, and there was a sword fern at the base of the tree with 5' long fronds. We'll see about fruit this year, although here in Bandon we don't get fruit every year consistently. There are two of these trees and both are now cleaned up and ready to grow, and I had fun whether there is ever fruit again or not.
Good work! Looks great. I hope it fruits for you.
One benefit of that climate is you can go windsurfing/kiteboarding/sailing with the wind in one of the bays for fun and then come home and grow fruit. Go back out to cool off.
John S
PDX OR