There's an old tree stump that sits along the edge of the road near our house. We pass it as we walk to the park, almost never paying attention to its slowly decaying form. Once upon a time, it was the base for a fairly large tree that must have cast a large shadow on the surrounding grass. Now it's a cut-down afterthought, forgotten by all save for the occasional dog.
Beauty is not only a pristine image. It is sometimes found in the nooks and crannies of our environment, and it rarely wears the label in an obvious manner. We have to look for it a little bit, take the time to find it and discover what it is that makes it worth capturing and remembering.
It's the process of discovery that often reveals an image far more worthwhile than those that may have been more perfectly packaged, more plainly obvious.
Sounds like a pretty good template for the larger things in life as well.
Your turn: What other decaying scenes have you captured? What made you stop and take a second look?
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7 comments:
Your picture and question reminds me of the tons of pictures of nurse logs I've taken on our hiking trips. And the kids favorite "red brown butt rot". Seriously, that's what it's called. It's just another decaying stump but since it's a chance to say butt with out getting in trouble, they point them out as much as they can.
My favorite place as a child was the Marymount Academy, it was an old boys school that had been left to fall into ruin. We used the grounds for a summer camp and I often got to go into the school with the caretakers and just soak in the history. I loved walking through this forgotten place that had ushered so many young men into adulthood. It would almost seem to whisper to me, the air heavy with dust and past lives. LOVED it!
When driving in the country on smaller back roads, occasionally you'll see an old abandoned farm house. I'm fascinated by the ones that are falling to bits and where nature seems to be reclaiming the space with grasses and trees and such. The foiliage follows the form of the building, then overtakes it. It's almost as if the organic, the natural pattern triumphs over the manmade, the artificial pattern.
If you walk in the woods, nearly every scene you come across is worthy of a post like this. I haven't taken photos of anything like that, but I always admire the patterns in bark and gnarled tree roots can keep my attention for hours.
i take alot of pictures around where I live the very wonderful city of LA...
So I think that in itself brings a certain amount of decay sorta..
Great post as ususal
I didn't comment on this image when I saw it earlier. I look at it and see the cracking upper layer of a drying mud puddle. I have to force myself to focus on the tree.
I'm partial to old edifice ruins. Our trip to Scotland years ago was good fodder for such a fasination. I could have stood encircled by the stone piles and standing stones of an assumed ancient cemetary for hours -- just photographing.
I live near one of the oldest tree in the city ; most people forgot that the canon ball stuck at its base lodged itself in there around 1759 during a fight between Wolfe and Montcalm ...
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