Imaginary Mountains

Scale is a funny thing. When you narrow the field-of-view down sufficiently, it’s hard to sort out what you’re looking at. So this snow-dusted rotting stump takes on some of the characteristics of a mountain scene, especially if you look at it carelessly.

Of course, when you’re making the picture, you know what you’re looking at, so there’s no mystery then. It’s when you’re processing the image that you realize that you can mistake this thing for some other thing.

And that’s appealing. Why?

There’s something about the visual confusion, if I’m looking intently, that causes me to look more slowly, more carefully. And, of course, the more carefully I look, the more I’m likely to see. This scene might nudge me to remember that this is an amazingly, startlingly beautiful and enigmatic world we live, for which I might be grateful.