Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Roots

Scarred for life

A mile north of the railroad cut that I featured in my "Crystalline Wall" (January 17) post, the railroad right-of-way becomes broader, but is still characterized by steep, though not precipitous, banks.  Here, trees established themselves many, many years ago on the lip of the cut.  Over the years, they've developed some pretty impressive buttresses to anchor themselves at the rocky edge.

My new camera allows me to create monochromatic images so, when I took the time to really examine these trees, I thought they might make good subjects rendered in black-and-white.


Slowly engulfing a stone


And, to finish up, some splashes of color...
Low sun enflaming American beech leaves on a darkening afternoon

Moss- and fungus-encrusted log

9 comments:

John Going Gently said...

prehistoric for sure... lovely!

Gail said...

Hi, and great pictures - some of the tee roots look like eally angry feet!

Love to you
Gail
peace.....

Jim said...

Scott, love the 'impressionist' header!
The b/w trees are incredible. Those roots look 'alive'! I know....
Thanks for showing my favourite tree of all...the Beech!

Scott said...

They never struck me as "prehistoric," until you made me look again John! Thanks for another perspective.

Scott said...

...and another perspective--angry feet! I think sometimes after a long day my feet feel like that. I certainly can see those, too!

Scott said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Scott said...

Jim, I'm an "oak" man, myself, but American beeches make really great images.

packrat said...

Love the black-and-white images, Scott. #1 and #5 look like feet to me, too--bird feet. Pterodactyl?

Scott said...

Packrat: I'm going to check the feet of my parrot, Alcazar, for a resemblance to these tree buttresses. I think he'll be offended. If I tell him they could look like pterodactyl talons, he might let me off lightly.