There was still sufficient water in the Piney Woods Church Road drainage ditch this afternoon to allow for another round of reflection photographs. I find this particular image almost otherworldly: a bent-over grass stem is mirrored in the still water in the silvery late-day light….
On a cloudy, balmy afternoon in late February, I walked Piney Woods Church Road in search of sunlight. The skies remained gray, but along the roadside I found a dandelion sun.
On a mild but overcast afternoon in late winter, I pause at a drainage ditch halfway down Piney Woods Church Road. In my camera, I capture the peculiar world of the water surface — dappled and silvery, a mysterious looking glass containing tree branches, ripples, and strands of grass, bound together by liquid and light.
A single red water oak leaf in the morning sunlight, viewed against the forest background along Piney Woods Church Road: the image resolves itself into three spaces, like three lines of haiku.
I feel that a post is warranted in appreciation of the trio of friendly and inquisitive cows that greet me nearly every time I walk down Piney Woods Church Road. Sometimes, one or more will dash over to where I am, practically galloping, if a cow can gallop. They seem eager to find out what I am up to or, more likely, whether I might have brought them a snack today. Before this project, I rarely thought of cows, and tended to ignore them grazing in a field as I would drive or walk past them. Lately, I have come to find their company quite pleasant.
The roadside ditches along Piney Woods Church Road are drying up. Until the next rainfall, there won’t be much possibility of reflection photography after today, so I availed myself of the opportunity by taking dozens of images. The “first place” winner, in my wife’s keen judgment, is this monochromatic image of grasses and a leaf. I read somewhere that there are no straight lines in nature; that certainly does not hold for this photograph, where the grasses parallel each other or cross at near-perpendicular. Looking at this picture, I am reminded of what I know of angles, from geometry and physics. Vertical angles are equal. The angles in a triangle sum to 180 degrees. The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection.
On several late afternoons this year, I have walked past these grasses rustling in the wind, and have been reminded of Tibetan prayer flags flying. According to Timothy Clark of Radiant Heart, “Prayer flags are simple devices that, coupled with the natural energy of the wind, quietly harmonize the environment, impartially increasing happiness and good fortune among all living beings.” Like prayer flags, these golden grasses catch the light of heaven and bring it into my presence along the road. My joy is greater for encountering them on my journey.
At my wife’s urging, I am adding one more heart photograph to the blog for Valentine’s Day. This one, which I found in the middle of the gravel roadway, is made of crushed pine cone husks that somehow managed to form themselves into a heart.
On the occasion of Valentine’s Day, I found myself seeking out heart images along Piney Woods Church Road. I found one that was rather intriguing but fell short of beautiful: a pair of crushed pine cone husks on the gravel road that together formed the shape of a heart. Elsewhere, though, there were abundant greenbrier leaves still on the vines, many quite heart-shaped indeed. I settled on this photo, in which the leaf becomes a screen for the shadowy forms behind it.
Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!
As I walked Piney Woods Church Road this morning, in the wake of the ice storm (which continued through the night, turning to snow toward the end), I took quite a few photographs of ice festooning pines and other trees and shrubs. The ice was already melting, covering my camera and me with water droplets. The drops also fell into a pothole along the road, forming overlapping circles on the water’s surface. If I had been asked two months ago if I would ever photograph a pothole as art, I would have laughed. Of course, since then I have taken numerous photographs of Piney Woods Church Road ruts and drainage gullies…. There is beauty and wonder everywhere.
