Tag Archives: patterns

Photo of the Week – February 5, 2016

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Now that this week’s blizzard has come and gone, we are left with knee-deep snow all around us.  I made it to a small local prairie yesterday morning and trudged around with my camera for a while.  There was plenty to see, but I spent quite a bit of time just photographing the tracings made by grass leaves blowing in the wind.

Snow

An arc in the snow made by wind-blown grass.

It's rare that I see a complete circle made by grasses, but I found several yesterday morning.

It’s rare that I see a complete circle made by grasses, but I found several yesterday morning.

Another one.

A broader mark made by a curve in the leaf blade rather than the tip.

Multiple marks made by

Multiple marks made by curly leaves.

After two days of hearing the wind howl outside and the kids howl inside, it was a pleasant relief to be able to walk in relative silence, hearing only the muffled sounds of my own footfalls.  The morning was calm, but the grass leaf tracings and snow drifts testified to the strength of the winds during the previous days.  I’m hoping to do some more walking in the next few days before the snow starts to melt too much…

Photo of the Week – January 15, 2015

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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…