Sometimes subjects are so intriguing, I feel effectively spellbound. “Cringe” cannot quite describe the lingering feelings of regret and anguish over losing touch with the reality of holding a $1500 dollar camera while taking this photo! My EOS50D smashed to the cement sidewalk while trying photograph this unusual spider-ball. I cringe just thinking about it — the camera incident though, even more than the creepy spider-ball phenomenon. Thankfully everything appears to be in working order, except the lens.
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Earlier this year, just before the leaves came out on the eighty foot high Sweetgum tree in our yard, my husband cut it down. Any doubts we may have had about removing it as an ornamental disappeared when we saw how easily the branches snapped, and how the tree was starting to rot from the inside out. Setting the logs aside as I helped to lower them, I noticed these shapes produced by the dying core.
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Mount Hood landscapes, OR, USA