Day 22: Bare Branches

 Agriculture and Husbandry, Backyard Nature, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Jan 222014
 

Another shot of arctic air arrived yesterday, and this morning it was twenty-five degrees, with a light breeze.  Bare hands became partially numb after just four or five photographs.  It was a day for admiring Mark Hirsch, who photographed an old burr oak tree in a pasture every day of the year, including on days that were bitterly cold by Wisconsin standards, not Georgia ones.  Adapting to the cold, I have identified a few images I have been taking practically every day, and for the next few days I will focus on each one of them in turn.  Today, I drove to the midway point of Piney Woods Church Road, to photograph some old pecan trees, some of which actually appear on an aerial photograph of the area back in 1938,making them probably 100 years or more in age.  The most grizzled veteran stands in one of the pastures, and merits its own photograph, which I will take sometime soon.  For today, though, I offer the image of bare tree branches, reaching for the sky.

Reaching for the Sky

 

Day 21: Oak Leaf Pilgrimage

 Backyard Nature, Native Plants, Natural History, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Jan 212014
 

I raced and approaching front (with its impending clouds, colder temperatures, and strong winds), getting out to Piney Woods Church Road while  the skies were still clear.  Morning sunshine offered marvelous backlighting for macro photographs of oak leaves, mosses and fern fronds.  The veins on this water oak leaf (Quecus nigra) form a kind of botanical map, reminiscent of medieval strip maps showing paths of pilgrimage (you can view an example of one here).  What kind of journey does this leaf offer us?  What holy lands does it reveal?

Oak Leaf Pilgrimage

Day Twenty: Being Watched

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Jan 202014
 

On yet another in a near-endless stream of clear and sunny days, I set out for Piney Wood Church Road convinced, yet again, that I would bring back a macro image to share.  I photographed quite a few still partly green oak leaves, backlit by the morning sun.   I immersed myself in a couple of clumps of moss, too.  My favorite photograph of the day, however, is this sparrow, perched on a barbed wire fence in front of an old barn (formerly used for mules that plowed the cotton fields in the area).  He (or she) is gazing straight at me.  Looking at this picture, I remember that, as I walk the road, I am under near-continual surveillance by a host of avian presences.  Turkey buzzards circle overhead, a bluebird pauses on its territorial circuit to observe me from a pecan tree branch, and sparrows hunt for seeds in a cow pasture.  Carrying my camera, it is easy for me to think of the Piney Woods Church Road landscape as a collection of objects to be photographed, rather than being alive, participatory.  Then my eyes catch those of a sparrow, gazing back, and I know that I am not alone.

Being Watched

Day Nineteen: Beyond the Fence

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Jan 192014
 

On yet another clear, breezy winter day, I set out with a longing to immerse myself in green things.  I photographed moss and leaves, mostly using my plus ten macro lens.  While walking the road, I struggled with feeling that I was running out of things to photograph, wondering how I could keep going until the first spring flowers come into bloom (most likely the daffodils in mid-February).  Yet, coming home, I discovered quite a few intriguing shots.  Most captivating of all, from my point of view, is this image of a barbed wire fence illumined by the afternoon sun, with two black cows beyond, sparring in play.  Who knows how much longer the three young cows in that pasture will remain there, before being sent away…..

Beyond the Fence

Day Eighteen: A Bend in the Road

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Jan 182014
 

Under clear skies and with the temperature at about freezing, I set off late on a Saturday morning in search of adventures along Piney Woods Church Road.  Perhaps it was the forecast, calling for more of the same for days on end, briefly interrupted by warmer weather on Monday, that made me seek out patches of green and buds suggesting spring.  I took quite a few photographs of mosses and the green leaves of a vine I have yet to identify.  But in the end, I selected this photograph of a vine tendril beside the roadway, looking back toward the junction with Rico Road.  There is a patch of distant green, at least — the blurred outlines of a pair of cedars.  Springtime seems quite distant at the moment, too.

Bend in the Road

Day Seventeen: Suncatcher

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Jan 172014
 

In the hour before sunset, walking through the wooded section of Piney Woods Church Road, my eye was caught by three shriveled brown leaves caught on the branch of a shrub.  There was something sensual about their curving forms, and about the way they held the late-day sunlight.  Perhaps “sunsual” is the most fitting word to use.

Suncatcher

 

Day Sixteen: Wood Oats

 Backyard Nature, Native Plants, Natural History, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Jan 162014
 

I have wandered by this wild winter grass — still clutching much of its seed — for sixteen days now, and I have even photographed it on several occasions.  Today, I finally add it to the Piney Woods Church Project image collection.  While I had long appreciated its beautiful seed heads in the late afternoon light, I had never stopped to wonder what it is called, and whether it is invasive or wild.  After some online research, I discovered that it is called wood oats, along with a host of other common names, such as Indian wild oats, Northern sea oats, and river oats.  To avoid confusion, I suppose I ought to call it by its scientific name of Chasmanthium latifolium instead, but this translates into the rather non-poetic “gaping flower fat leaf.”  The grass is native to damp wooded places in the southeastern United States.  It reseeds itself quite readily, and manages to grow practically anywhere, including along this roadside in Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia.

Wood Oats

Day Fifteen: Air-abesque

 Backyard Nature, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Jan 152014
 

This morning I kept noticing fine vines, twisting and turning, along the roadside all around me.  Some of them I have photographed many times already; others I encountered for the first time today.  Against the sky, many appeared to be aerial calligraphy, though I could not decipher their meanings.

Air-abesque

Day Fourteen: Sweetgum Ornament

 Backyard Nature, Natural History, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Jan 142014
 

After a light rain yesterday evening, today was a clear-blue sky day.  I set off late in the afternoon to see what I might discover along Piney Woods Church Road.  I took quite a few stand-by photographs, and also found an unopened cocoon — probably belonging to a saturniid moth — suspended from the top of a winter weed.  While intriguing from a natural history perspective, the cocoon simply would not yield a good photo.  Indeed, it was a day of many shots coming close, but not quite working out.  As usual, the principle of taking lots of images and trusting the odds came to my rescue.  Near Rico Road, I photographed a sweetgum seed pod hanging from its stem about ten feet above the ground.  Since it was well out of my reach, I photographed it with my zoom lens, not the macro +4 I have been using of late.  I love the deep blue sky in this photo.

Sweetgum Ornament

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