Saturday, January 16, 2010

Colorless World

Contrary to what you may be thinking from the title, this is not a social commentary on race. It is more an environmental commentary on trees. For those of you familiar with the Wasatch Front, you will understand what I mean when I say we are experiencing the usual January inversion. For those of you unfamiliar with the Wasatch Front let me explain: the inversion is when cooler air close to the earth's surface is trapped in a valley by warmer air high above the earth's surface. Consequently, it plunges the residents of said valley into a swirling grey vortex of frozen pollution for days or weeks at a time. The sun sometimes doesn't even penetrate the haze and the temperatures are always below freezing. The only, (and I mean that quite literally), upside to this real life throwback to a black-and-white movie is how the pollution fog freezes in a beautiful crystallized layer to every little twig and blade of grass exposed to the moisture. When the sun fails to burn through the haze the crystal casing builds layer upon layer until the trees look fuzzy with the whiteness. This presents a singular opportunity for me. Those of you familiar with Megan's blog may know that I have an affinity for photographing trees. Nothing professional, mind you, but for some reason I get a kick out of trees in all their seasons and putting them in colorful splendor on my computer wallpaper. Below are some photos I took of the aforementioned inversion effects. They don't do justice to the complete void of color created by this little trick of nature, but I like them, and thus force them upon you to enjoy as well...





2 comments:

Staci said...

SO SO SO pretty! i used one of the photos as my desktop. hope you don't mind!!

Paul and Mariko said...

I love your pictures! We just got a new camera, and I've been REALLY wanting to get pictures of the trees... but then when I'm sitting at home wrapped up in a soft, warm blanket, the thought of going out in the frigid, nasty air...well the pictures just don't seem as important. :) So I'm glad you braved the cold to take the pictures I want! haha