Two blades of a wood oat plant, one already browned, the other green turning to yellow, catch the mid-November late-afternoon light and beckon to the photographer-pilgrim.
Nov 212014
Nov 212014
As the natural history term d’jour, a fascicle refers to a cluster of pine needles; various pine species have different numbers of needles in each grouping. Loblolly pines have fascicles of three. In this case, the pine needle fascicles are balancing on branches somewhere down Piney Woods Church Road.
Nov 212014
Whenever I need another surge of photographic inspiration, I know that I need only seek out a vine with tendrils, and some enchanting bit of calligraphy will emerge. I was drawn to the way the light played across the edge of a recurving tendril in this photograph from Piney Woods Church Road earlier this afternoon.
Nov 202014
From my walk late this afternoon, here are four illuminated leaf portraits:
Nov 202014
Along Piney Woods Church Road grow many plants, including stately oak and hickory trees, weedy sassafras and loblolly pine trees, and dozens of shrubs and ground plants, both annuals and perennials. Amongst them all, many are quite photogenic and invite me to return to them again and again as the seasons advance: muscadine grape, greenbrier, and white oak fall firmly into this category. Then there is dog fennel (Eupatorium capillifolium): tall (several feet), gangly, frilly, with nondescript flowers and seeds, and a pungent yet not particularly pleasant aroma. Today, a dog fennel plant was in seed alongside the road, illuminated by the afternoon sun. I dedicated myself to taking its portrait. The result is the two “experiments” below.
Nov 192014
Walking down Piney Woods Church Road on my way back home late this afternoon, I noticed a tiny loblolly pine sapling, maybe six inches tall, along the roadside. The uppermost third of the tiny tree was bathed in sunlight. These two photographs resulted from my time spent there. Both, but particularly the first one, evoke the canyon landscape of the Colorado Plateau, as if projecting my longings onto the space of my daily pilgrimage.
Nov 192014
A single sweetgum leaf against the deep blue sky…play of light and shadow…texture of leaf surface, patterns of veins…..
Nov 182014
On my way to an early morning appointment, I stopped the car at a drainage ditch along Piney Woods Church Road. After months of being dry, the ditch had filled with water after yesterday morning’s rainfall. In the bitter cold that has followed, the water as iced over, leaving patterns of water bubbles near the surface. Below are three photos of the bubbles, converted to black and white with a dark blue filter applied. I find myself entranced by these frozen patterns of concentric circles.
Nov 172014
I set out for Piney Woods Church Road shortly after noon today, the overnight rain having ended and the promised wind still building. It was a chilly, damp day, but nothing like the wintery conditions anticipated for tomorrow — temperatures not rising out of the mid-30s with wind chills in the mid-20s. As I strolled down the road, I noticed many more leaves that had fallen onto the roadbed; and I offer for today these three portraits: in order, A Conversation; Solitude; and Symmetry.
Nov 162014
From a rather melancholy walk under leaden skies, I offer these two images as poems to the wind. The air is mostly still now, but heavy rain is anticipated for the overnight hours, after many weeks without precipitation. Change is coming, but all I feel today is a longing for things that once were.
