Stand Up

 Some people have commented that the pebble stack in my last post resembled a woman in a large skirt cradling a baby/child, which is what I noticed when I first created the stack. Even though it was unintentional it really does look like that and I was really happy with the way it turned out. It would be impossible to recreate it and I like that the image is unique.

I went on to build a second stack which is is probably more simple in that it is a pile of stones balanced with no special feature but within the landscape it looks really effective and the light play through the water in some of the images is quite cool.

I have included one shot of the background too to provide greater context to the overall setting.

It can be fun playing about on the rivers edge, you should try it sometime.

Balanced Beneath The Falls

I wasn't sure where to start talking about today's pictures. Obviously they are different views of a stone stack on the Wolf River just below the falls.  I really like the way they look, particularly the ones with the falls in the background. Slightly out of focus the falls makes a really dramatic backdrop. 

I love messing about near water and creating something artistic in the landscape. These stacks use ancient materials but they are very transient structures. I wondered why there is something so satisfying about this, and I know I am not alone as I have seen lots of websites or instagram accounts of people who are far more skilled than me. I think it stems from early childhood when among the earliest toys we play with are building blocks and we are taught, encouraged to build towers and balance blocks to see how high they will go and then have fun knocking them down and starting over. 

The realisation hit me... yes I do this now because I can see some artistic merit in the resulting photos but really I am just a big kid.

Three Views of Balance Two

Following on from yesterday's post here is another pebble balance from the shore at Duluth. Again I have photographed it from different angle so you have the horizon in one, the rocky backdrop in another and the wooded background in another.

From some angles this looks like quite a simple stack but in the first image you can see just how precariously these pebbles are balanced and you can see that it wouldn't take much to set the whole thing tumbling down.

I like the third shot because of the bokeh which looks really cool and I also like the fact that the biggest pebble looks a bit like a tongue poking out(at least it does to me).