Freak of Nature

wfellerwfeller Registered Users Posts: 2,625 Major grins
edited January 27, 2008 in Landscapes
780rap.jpg
Anybody can do it.

Comments

  • schmooschmoo Registered Users Posts: 8,468 Major grins
    edited January 26, 2008
    Is it big? Is it small? So hard to tell! Quite a nice riddle in pictures. :D
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  • bryanj87bryanj87 Registered Users Posts: 859 Major grins
    edited January 26, 2008
    That is quite nice. The snow covered tree contrasts nicely with the darker sky. Well done.
    bjbphotos.com | nepg
  • wfellerwfeller Registered Users Posts: 2,625 Major grins
    edited January 26, 2008
    schmoo wrote:
    Is it big? Is it small? So hard to tell! Quite a nice riddle in pictures. :D

    A riddle I enjoy presenting, although the 'scale' in this shot is more apparent than in my 'Chanting Rock' photo. Someone commented that, they couldn't tell if the rock were small or 100 feet tall. I didn't see the scale as relevant in the least. When I shoot I very rarely care about presenting what most percieve as reality, just my interpretation of what I saw or felt at that time or memory of it.

    This is my release from the 'reality' photos I do for a living- a way to relax and express myself.

    One pill makes you larger
    And one pill makes you small
    And the ones that mother gives you
    Don't do anything at all
    ~White Rabbit, Jefferson Starship
    Anybody can do it.
  • wfellerwfeller Registered Users Posts: 2,625 Major grins
    edited January 26, 2008
    bryanj87 wrote:
    That is quite nice. The snow covered tree contrasts nicely with the darker sky. Well done.

    Cool. Thank you.
    Anybody can do it.
  • LCDLCD Registered Users Posts: 494 Major grins
    edited January 26, 2008
    Beautiful.
    I think the bushes in the fg provide scale if you need it, but I don't think the shot is about size but rather the shape, texture and contrast.
    Well done!
    Lisa
  • DogdotsDogdots Registered Users Posts: 8,795 Major grins
    edited January 26, 2008
    Nice...different....I like it :D
    Mary
    www.Dogdotsphotography.com
  • dusty-dogdusty-dog Registered Users Posts: 116 Major grins
    edited January 27, 2008
    To me, this looks like a small bit of lichen, maybe a few inches high. Just my first impression about what it is and its scale. But, it sure makes a great landscape image. Do tell, am I right?
    Diane
    Dusty Dog Digital
     NWPLI
     NANPA
  • wfellerwfeller Registered Users Posts: 2,625 Major grins
    edited January 27, 2008
    LCD wrote:
    Beautiful.
    I think the bushes in the fg provide scale if you need it, but I don't think the shot is about size but rather the shape, texture and contrast.
    Well done!
    Lisa

    Lisa, thank you. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. One of the nice things about the ridge that this Jeffery pine sits on (although this almost shows it) is that at 8000' elevation the sunlight sets lower than eye level. In this photo the light is just about at a right angle to the left of the trunk of the tree. About a mile north, and in the summer, the light seems to brighten up the area under the branches. Very strange to me, very cool.
    Anybody can do it.
  • wfellerwfeller Registered Users Posts: 2,625 Major grins
    edited January 27, 2008
    Dogdots wrote:
    Nice...different....I like it :D

    Thank you.
    Anybody can do it.
  • wfellerwfeller Registered Users Posts: 2,625 Major grins
    edited January 27, 2008
    dusty-dog wrote:
    To me, this looks like a small bit of lichen, maybe a few inches high. Just my first impression about what it is and its scale. But, it sure makes a great landscape image. Do tell, am I right?

    Nope, not even close :) As I mentioned above, this is a Jeffery pine growing at about an 8000' elevation. Two factors have most likely contributed to the strange growth of this approximately 20' tall evergreen; high winds and lightening. The ridge is the watershed divide between the Southern California and Mojave Desert geomorphic regions. Basically this means when rain falls the water to the left of the tree eventually reaches the Pacific Ocean. To the right, the water finds its way into the Mojave Desert aquifers terminating for the most part in a place called Soda Lake and possibly Death Valley several hundred miles away (at least it -may have- up to about 20,000 years ago).

    The difference in elevations of the two geo-regions (the Southern Basin starts at sea level, the Mojave at about 4,000 feet with an 8000-10,000 ft ridge between them) cause pressure to build and once it reaches so high releases as usually high winds over this ridge- the predominate wind-force. The mountain range that this ridge is part of, creating what is known as a 'rain shadow' hangs up storms until they either rain themselves, out or build enough pressure and push themselves over into the desert side of the range. In the summer, lightening storms seem to have the same affinity for striking the trees on this ridge as tornadoes do for trailer parks in the midwest.

    The lichen and mosses here in this drier climate rarely is more than a few millimeters thick. In the latitudes further north, such as Yosemite it grows much thicker, but around here it usually provides a very colorful 2 dimensional decoration.
    Anybody can do it.
  • summerzsummerz Registered Users Posts: 494 Major grins
    edited January 27, 2008
    Really nice effects here.thumb.gif
  • wfellerwfeller Registered Users Posts: 2,625 Major grins
    edited January 27, 2008
    summerz wrote:
    Really nice effects here.thumb.gif

    Thanks-
    Anybody can do it.
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