The dead upon the dead
Two of the last three photographs were from an upper section of Bull Creek on December 3, 2013, a date that marked my second visit in as many months to that location. During the first visit, on October 23rd, I also photographed a sycamore tree, Platanus occidentalis, but a dead one wearing the tangled and likewise lifeless remnants of a rattan vine, Berchemia scandens.
If you’re interested in photography as a craft, you’ll find that points 3, and 15 in About My Techniques are relevant to this photograph.
© 2014 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
When I was a child in deep East TX we had a favorite tree to climb. There was a vine–only one long one that hung vertically and loosely along its trunk. Always present, it helped me get to some of the branches. I wonder if it was a rattan vine? hmmmm….
georgettesullins
January 27, 2014 at 6:49 AM
So we were both tree climbers in those days. Rattan vines are woody but have a smooth exterior that’s often colored a pale green or reddish brown. I haven’t yet posted a picture that gives you a good look at the vine per se, but at
http://www.wildflower.org/gallery/result.php?id_image=26721
you can see a slender green one strangling a tree.
Steve Schwartzman
January 27, 2014 at 9:32 AM
On October 23, I was in Council Grove, Kansas, taking photos of dead, historical trees and celebrating my birthday. I felt far more lively than those trees, and looked at least marginally better than this one!
shoreacres
January 27, 2014 at 8:47 AM
Let’s hope you looked and felt more than marginally better than this tree!
Steve Schwartzman
January 27, 2014 at 9:37 AM
Interesting pictures. Some sections of the vine look like snakes while overall it appears to be littered with wires. Ironic how the dead appears to be so covered in evidence of life, up there like a pair of shoes hanging from a line or a branch…
🙂
eLPy
January 28, 2014 at 5:28 AM
When alive, these things would have looked quite different, so I’m grateful to have had a clear view of this tangled stage.
Steve Schwartzman
January 28, 2014 at 6:50 AM
[…] day after I took the photo of dead vines on a dead tree that you saw last time, I took this radiant one of Maximilian sunflowers, Helianthus maximiliani. […]
The living | Portraits of Wildflowers
January 28, 2014 at 6:03 AM