Portraits of Wildflowers
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What a fantastic capture!
Pit
July 15, 2016 at 9:26 AM
This beach fed my desire for abstractions. Too bad Austin is so far from a shoreline.
Steve Schwartzman
July 15, 2016 at 10:05 AM
I’m assuming it was water that flowed across this bit of beach, leaving that smooth spot in the lee of the rock (or shell). Tidal action, perhaps? It’s neat, because the ripples make the water as strong a presence as the sand, even though there isn’t a bit of water in the photo. Time’s an element, too. First there was the rock; then there were the ripples; then there was the seagull. It’s like un-photoshopped layers.
shoreacres
July 15, 2016 at 5:58 PM
We spent parts of two days visiting the Indiana Dunes. I’m afraid that’s not enough for me to have any sense of how far up the beach the water can come. The area in the photograph was a good distance from the water, so my impression is that the lake doesn’t normally get there, but again I don’t really know. My hypothesis has been that wind created the ripples.
You’re correct, by the way, that the object is a rock and not a shell, and that nature did all the layering without software.
Steve Schwartzman
July 15, 2016 at 6:12 PM
Hey Steve .. Nice shot. Wish our sand was this colour ..
Julie@frogpondfarm
July 16, 2016 at 2:53 PM
I can’t remember what color the sand at Muriwai is.
Steve Schwartzman
July 16, 2016 at 3:32 PM
Black 😄
Julie@frogpondfarm
July 16, 2016 at 7:39 PM
Ah yes, now I remember. But isn’t there some variation in the blackness (which is really greyness)?
Steve Schwartzman
July 16, 2016 at 7:42 PM
There is variation indeed. Some days it is pale cream, but the majority of times it appears black ..
Julie@frogpondfarm
July 17, 2016 at 3:18 AM
My first impression of the rock was that it gives the appearance of movement by the smooth sand behind it. Makes one think of The Racetrack. But upon further thought, it seems more like the wind, which you surmise causes the ripples, was blocked by the rock and left that sand unrippled.
Steve Gingold
July 18, 2016 at 6:32 AM
Oh, I’d forgotten all about The Racetrack. I wonder if by now someone has staked out the stones and seen them move.
Your hypothesis about the rock blocking the wind from creating ripples in the sand seems right to me.
One thing you’ll appreciate as a photographer is that as I carefully walked around the outside of the area pictured here and took pictures from different angles, I noticed two people walking toward me on the beach. I headed them off and gestured for them to please go around the area, which they did, leaving the sand untouched so I could keep taking pictures.
Steve Schwartzman
July 18, 2016 at 6:50 AM
The mystery has been solved. http://www.nature.com/news/wandering-stones-of-death-valley-explained-1.15773
You are fortunate that the people were accommodating. It doesn’t always work out that way and they might have returned your gesture with one slightly different in intent. Which brings me to another comment about the Wandering Stones. Actually…no comment needed.
Steve Gingold
July 18, 2016 at 8:02 AM
Thanks for your link to that explanation.
As for a comment on the photograph, even though none is needed, I’ll say Oy vey.
Steve Schwartzman
July 18, 2016 at 8:42 AM
[…] you thought I’d show only one set of patterns from the beach at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore on June 17, you don’t know me well. […]
Roughly elliptical | Portraits of Wildflowers
September 6, 2016 at 4:36 AM