Sunrise from Leesylvania State Park (2008)

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Sunrise from Leesylvania State Park

One afternoon while going through my older photos I stumbled across this one, which might be my first sunrise with a DSLR. I believe I’d purchased the camera two to three months before this, and I decided it was time to try a sunrise, so I got up early enough to arrive at Leesylvania State Park and watch the sun rise above the far shore of the Potomac River. The distant shore is in Maryland and I was in Virginia. There was a single sailboat in the water somewhat near shore. I tried to position the sun so its reflection was completely in the water, creating that line of reflected sunlight. Nothing spectacular, but I still have fond memories of creating this one.

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Sometimes a Tree Fascinates Me

The more time we spend around trees the more opportunities we have to see something interesting. Trees are like people. As much as any two of them may at first look alike, each one is different and unique, and the more time we spend around them the easier it’ll be to see and appreciate these differences. Today, though, I’m not thinking so much of those subtle differences you really have to look for, but instead I’m thinking about those trees that immediately stand out as different.

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How did it grow this way?

The tree in the photo above is an example. How did it grow this way? It’s almost as if it were intentionally growing into a large bench for tired and adventurous hikers to rest on. Was there perhaps something below it when it first started growing, and now whatever that was is gone leaving this unusual horizontal growth and a second trunk growing vertically from it? And look at that little knee joint at the corner. I do like how you can see some of the large roots growing out below the second trunk seemingly to give more support and balance. This is a good sized tree so there’s a lot of weight in the second trunk.

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Creekside tree

I’m often drawn to trees that grow along the bank of a creek. Frequently, you can see more of the root system and sometimes the trunks will grow in different ways. In the case of the tree above it’s not all that strange or unusual but I still find myself drawn to it, along with the fallen tree resting horizontally above the water.

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Coming together

In the photo above we see two trunks coming back together, fuzed into one another. I didn’t think to photograph the tree at ground level to see if perhaps it’s a single tree that splits into multiple trunks. Either way, though, I found it interesting how one trunk branches out and then somehow attaches itself to and merges with another trunk.

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The Troll

And I’ll leave it up to you to determine what you see, if anything, in the photo above. Trees often develop growths and sometimes they take on shapes that resemble other things, similar to clouds or rock formations. I don’t currently know what causes these growths. My guess would be they are similar to cancer in humans, but I’ve yet to do any research on the topic. If you happen to know please comment below.

So all these examples are my long-winded way of saying, sometimes a tree fascinates me. 😀

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There’s Gold on Them Thar Flies

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Hanging with a golden-backed snipe fly

I caught a flash of gold while walking down a trail through the forest. I know in times past these woods were mined for pyrite, also known as fool’s gold, but I hadn’t expected to find real gold here. And yet, looking down that’s exactly what it appeared I’d found. And then the little bit of gold began moving.

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Though it might blend in well in this environment, the movement of gold caught my eye.

I’d stumbled across a golden-backed snipe fly (Chrysopilus thoracicus), one of the many, many species of true flies in the world. And what a beautiful fly it is, with that back covered in little gold hairs that sometimes give the look of gold leaf someone’s applied to the back of the fly. This particular fly wasn’t very bothered by my presence. It was spending its time wandering around on the ground, so I did the best I could to keep up with it, capturing some photographs along the way.

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I followed this golden-backed snipe fly as it moved around on the wet ground.

According to the Mountain Lake Biological Station of the University of Virginia, there’s actually little known about their life cycle and habits. You’d think in today’s world that everything has already been discovered, studied and understood. But the more I learn the more I realize how much we, as a species, and I, as an individual, still don’t know about the world around us and all the life that inhabits it. I find that encouraging as there’s still plenty of opportunities to discover and learn, something I very much enjoy doing.

And speaking of learning, I want to thank Stephen Gingold for teaching me what species this was, which then prompted me to do a little research of my own to learn more.

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