Photo of the Week – January 15, 2015

Earlier this week, I wrote about interesting holes in the bark of burned ponderosa pine trees at our Niobrara Valley Preserve.  However, I wasn’t actually focused on documenting holes in trees at the time – I was just looking for interesting photo compositions.  Ponderosa pine bark patterns are always fun to explore, but the additional contrast between the tawny browns and the charred black from the wildfire created even more intriguing images than usual.  The photo below was my favorite from that trip’s pine bark art.

Ponderosa pine bark on a burned tree at The Nature Conservancy's Niobrara Valley Preserve, Nebraska.

Ponderosa pine bark on a burned tree at The Nature Conservancy’s Niobrara Valley Preserve, Nebraska.

The photo reminds me of a Rorschach test.  What do you see in it?  I see the tall face of an angry looking man looking to the right.  He may or may not be sticking out his tongue.  I think I’d prefer not to hear Dr. Rorschach’s diagnosis of my personality characteristics…

Favorite Photos From 2014

As we near the end of another year, I’ve put together a collection of my favorite images from 2014.  I hope you enjoy them.  Though I traveled to prairies in several other states this year, all of my favorite images ended up being from Nebraska.  (No offense to the beautiful grasslands in those other states – it’s just the way it worked out this year.)

The slideshow will run on its own, but you can speed it up by clicking on the arrows to move through the images.

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Thanks, as always, for your interest in prairies and this blog.  Knowing there are others who enjoy the beauty and complexity of prairie landscapes is very satisfying.  Have a great holiday season!

If you want to see similar collections of images from previous years, here are links to 2013 and 2012.