Face

Often, it takes a degree of attention to see what’s present in the most interesting shots. When I walk in the Arb, I aim to evoke that frame of mind even though it doesn’t always come. On a recent morning, early, I walked past the hawthorns along Peters Hill and was grabbed by this image. My mind was elsewhere and I didn’t even have my camera. But there it was, staring out at me.

It doesn’t usually happen that way for me. And I’ll admit that when I first saw this, it was the play of light and dark, rather than a humanoid face that I saw. I’m not given to seeing faces in clouds or trees or other inanimate objects. It feels like a way of imposing human order on non-human visual elements.

But once I looked more closely (yes, it often happens on second or third glance), a pleasing, if wooden humanoid portrait emerged from the tree. I don’t attribute any greater meaning but it was fun to watch it evolve in my mind.