Where did the time go? Well, some of it went to walking in the woods.
The last day of February
Ice shadows
Some last pictures of the snow before it melts.
Tree/Shadows
From a recent walk.
From that bike ride
I stopped and took quite a few pictures on that bike ride. This one is black and white because I accidentally swivelled a knob. But I liked it anyway; it quite catches the feel of the morning, which was both foggy and frosty.
Winter light
The light of a winter sun is one of my favourite things. So have some beauty to share.
Black and white, February 15th, 2016
There’s a trail I hike fairly regularly that’s lined with alder; at this time of year the trunks and shadows make lovely patterns, and I decided to take some black and white images for a change.
Frosty needles
And a few other things.
The dew on the needles had frozen overnight and was just starting to melt, so if I bumped into a tree I got showered in tiny ice pellets.
There were also pretty stumps…
And broken trees…
This broken tree trunk was so interesting I took a black and white picture too.
An altogether satisfactory morning walk.
Eyes
Even in our own yard, they’re watching.
Dead leaf and ridged boards
I’ve tagged this “autumn leaves” because it is… although by now, having hung around for months, it’s more of a winter leaf. Not colourful, the way autumn leaves are thought of, because it’s from a kiwi vine, and they don’t do colour when dying. But on a January day with low sun and the ridged wood on the back deck bleached out, I think that very lack of bright colour becomes something kinda special.
Odd wood
I’m not sure what caused the yellow colouring or the odd markings on this old snag, but it’s an interesting effect.
Grass over log
Makes pretty patterns, don’t you think?
Gnarly wood
I think this may have been an arbutus tree at some point, but it wasn’t very recognizable in this state.
Old wood
It’s been a little hectic, so I haven’t been posting as many photos as usual. But today I found an old root ball with some interesting bits.
Looks to me like the smaller bit of wood is in an animated conversation with the rather bored larger bit.
Worn wood
We have split rail fencing as a feature in parts of our front yard garden. It’s been there for quite a few years, dating from well before our ownership of the house, and it’s getting some lovely textures.
I do like old wood.
Leaves, light and shadows
Taken at the beach.
Rock embedded in beach log
Logs that have been tossed up onto beaches are often pretty much the worse for wear—the wood is worn and sometimes gets almost soft where the grain has been broken. But there’s nothing soft about the way big logs get tossed up onto a beach. And that’s particularly obvious when you notice that the force of it embeds rocks into them.
This photo looks to me like an egg in a nest or maybe a rock perched on the crest of a wave—appropriate, when you think about it.
Gnarled wood
I quite often crop photos—well, to be honest, I almost always crop photos before I post them. For me, playing with an image, looking at how the compositional relationships change when the defined area changes, is part of the pleasure of photography (hey, I’m a graphic designer).
But this one I didn’t crop, in the end. I like the way the extension of it confuses the perspective—what’s concave? what’s convex? what’s up and down? is that inside or outside? And I like the way it looks like it’s been put through a Photoshop filter, but hasn’t. And I like the way the light works with the focus, dramatically, to spotlight a particular area.
