I have walked by this log hundreds of times and photographed it dozens. It probably washed ashore when the pulp mill was in operation and giant log booms, pulled by tugs, passed this point on their way to Silver Bay. The mill closed in 1993. Logs broke loose from the booms, and formed barriers along the shoreline. Sand and gravel packed around the logs extending the land into the sea.
Yesterday I saw a sucker hole (a break in the weather that “suckers” you into going out and then catches you in the storm) open up from my perch over Jamestown Bay and headed out for a walk. I choose the Totem Trail because there is a dense canopy overhead and walking in the rain does not get me as wet as a walk along the beach at Silver Bay. I don’t completely understand where the rain goes, it falls on the trees and you would think it would drip off and get me wet, you can certainly HEAR the rain overhead, but the trail looks dry as soon as you get under the canopy and wet when you step out.
This log is not under the canopy and by the time I got to it the rain had stopped and the sun glistened off the wet log. The sun brought out the color on the log, the reddish brown of the wood and the green of what was growing on the log. It’s the color that caught my attention and I spent some shooting the log along its length, concentrating on knots, areas where the wood was rotting away and places where new growth was feeding of the rotting wood.
I posted 5 of my “keepers” on Facebook yesterday and my friend Jeff Pearson wrote “Shades of Minor White, if he shot color.” Minor White was about texture and while it was the color that attracted me to the log on this particular day, I decided to convert the pics to black and white to see what they would look like. I’m posting the color pic side by side with the black & white. What do you think?
Today I walked the same path at the same time. It was raining much harder than yesterday and the light was dull, but I wanted to take two pictures in this light and convert them to black & white. I also wanted to get a picture of the two little trees rooted in the trunk of the older “parent” tree. I think I like the b&w better in the dull light than in the direct light.
All the pictures are really interesting, but like you I do like the ones you took in the bright sunlight better they seem to have more detail. Then again the ones you put in black and white today the details show up much better than the color ones; but they also have more detail than the black and white ones of the day before.
Love all your photos.
Phyllis