Category Archives: forest
Deforestation
A week ago this was a magnificent little forest. So, I’m wondering, what’s the morality difference between clear cutting the Amazon forest for agricultural development and clear cutting Alabama forests for commercial development?
Are Alabama forests less of a carbon sink than the forests of the Amazon? Why will clear cutting Alabama forests not contribute to climate change, but clear cutting in the Amazon will? Do Alabama forests not produce oxygen for the planets creatures to breath? I’m also wondering about the impact the loss of wildlife habitat will have on the forest’s creatures: birds, squirrels, deer, armadillos, rabbits, etc.
The Forest in my Backyard
Longleaf Pine Forest
Hurricane Sally added new curves and diagonals to the Longleaf Pine Forest.
It’s Just a Tiny Weed
A weed in afternoon sunlight filtered through the canopy.
Forest Faeries
Tiny mushrooms growing on translucent stems looking like little faeries among the spider webs in the crotch of a mighty Oak tree.
River in the Root
From This a Mighty Branch…
How to Photograph a Tugboat
The Chair, a broken fence and an ancient Oak
…the fence blocks socialization, the tree doesn’t participate in any kind of conversation; I can only guess at its stories, its past, who visited before, the pain it must have felt when the fence was nailed to its side.
Isolation – it’s a bitch. In my next life, please, don’t let me be a tree.
October Light
(Click on photo to see a larger image.)
Light in October is different than in June or February. The trees, the fence, the little trailer; they all plead, beg…like me…to hold on to the warmth even after the sun goes down. There’s no need for begging in June – the warmth will hold on. In February, there’s just no point in begging. But in October, in the deep south, leaves are still mostly green, the light is warm in every sense, but after the sun drops below the horizon…
Light in the Deep, Dark Forest
Click on the photo to see a larger image.
Daylight Shades of Midnight
Where long strands of Spanish Moss drape a Live Oak forest in the deep south. It’s where water moccasins and alligators target prey, and generations upon generations of Cajun families raised their children and taught them to capture delicious seafood in nearby shallow bays and inlets.
Fish River
A foggy afternoon with the camera pointed downstream on the Fish River from the pier at the National Estuarine Research Reserve Pitcher Plant Bog. Just beyond the bridge, fresh water from the river flows into the brackish Mobile Bay before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico.
The White River
A place on the White River near Hesperia, Michigan, just upstream from the M-20 Bridge; it’s an easy place to get in the water and looks as if there would be lots of trout, but I’ve never done very well here. The well-worn path through the woods indicates that more than a few fishermen wade this stream. Maybe they’ve already taken all the trout.
Another side of the story is that it’s a quiet, beautiful place to spend a summer afternoon just being.
Some of My Favorite Places
My favorite place is wherever I am…or, most often, someplace else.
Regardless, those places always include green trees, water, moderately warm temperatures, and frequently – adult beverages.
My brother, Charlie, proprietor of Victor Alexander Winery, Bainbridge Island, WA
Lake Michigan shore near Montague, MI
Northwest Plains and Mountains
Sunset at Orange Beach, Alabama
Quinta Mazatlan, McAllen, Texas
Wharf and Ferris Wheel at Seattle, Washington.
Day-To-Day Photography 