DePauw Nature Park – Page 2

Water Droplets

DSC 0343

Using a macro lens with 5-fold magnification is an odd experience. The usual, somewhat trivial “workflow” for taking a picture: Look-Frame-Capture doesn’t apply, because one doesn’t see what one might get until one is really close.

DSC 0326

This time I was erring around in DePauw’s Nature Park’s quarry with its fascinating ground. How could I predict that the lump of greenness that has survived the recent cold spell here is up close a fully active miniature ecosystem, collecting and preserving water for nutrition and climatization?

DSC 0311

To see what you see here with the naked eye you’d need a magnifying glass.

DSC 0348

The depth of field is of course abysmal, and I don’t usually have the patience to stack (at least) a dozen images.

DSC 0346

It’s good to know that there is a small world unfazed by the machinations of the big guys.

Supreme Provocation

What are blurred images good for?

DSC 0057

Are they just there to cover up blemishes of reality or the lack of skills of the photographer?

DSC 0059

Or is having more information always better? Shouldn’t at least something be in focus, always? DSC 0038

Or better, everything, with absolute clarity, so that nothing is hidden and no question remains?

DSC 0027

Sometimes, I think, it is necessary to reconsider everything.

DSC 0087

The Last Days of Green

DSC 9965

Last November I mused whether the Sycamore trees would, over the years, take over the quarry in DePauw Nature Park. My recent visit made me skeptical.

DSC 9986

There are still lots of little sproutlings, but what I thought looks like early fall coloring in the top picture and below,

DSC 0006

turns out to be something else up close.

DSC 9992

At least one half of the younger trees are affected by leaf loss and dead branches, and the brown color look rather unhealthy.

DSC 9990

It might be that these trees are affected by Anthracnose, or that just the generally problematic ground cover of the quarry causes malnutrition, as Bryan from DePauw University suggested. We will have to wait.

DSC 9986

More Smallness

I have written before about the perspective vertically down, and complained that in Indiana, you only see mud or decaying leaves. So, let’s have a look. DSC 1030

What is this stuff? I have only seen it at the DePauw Nature Park, near water. It is likely organic, but never green. Is there a zombie-plant whose natural state of existence is that of decay?

DSC 1024

But not everything is decaying. Roots are feeling their way, and algae cover everything in wondrous patterns.

DSC 1035

Tiniest plants remind us that we are little, too. DSC 1062

Hence let us rest…

DSC 1075

Patience

DSC 0612

No, winter isn’t over. While we are waiting impatiently another one or two months for the first wild flowers to come out, Nature itself appears to be very patient

DSC 0616

These sycamore fruits have been hanging there all winter.

DSC 0614

Around them is proof that there has been a future.

DSC 0621

This is not Waiting for Godot. Instead, this is comfortable trust: L’enfer, c’est les autres.

DSC 0700

Winter

After a mild frost transformed the ground at De Pauw Nature Park into still lives, recent snow fall and deep frost has changed all of that again.

DSC 0227

The walls of the former quarry are adorned with icicles, and the ground is a uniform white with occasional bits of vegetation sticking out,

DSC 0206 2

creating patterns of light and dark.

DSC 0216

Usually, the little lake is teeming with birds. Now only spare footprints tell me that I am not alone.

DSC 0200 2

It is cold.

DSC 0223

Toxic City

There are (at least) two aspects of the DePauw Nature Park that I haven’t written about that make this place fascinating to me. One is the structure of the ground.

DSC 0071

There is some weird flaky stuff that I haven’t seen elsewhere, but besides that, the ground is just more complex than what you typically would call Indiana Dirt.

DSC 0099

I have waited to show this until now because, with early frost, everything gets even better.

DSC 0081

The other aspect is the sound. In principle, this should be a quiet place (there rarely is anybody, at least not at my favorite hours). But there are birds, of course, and other noises, from factories and railroad tracks just not far enough away to be inaudible. Somebody should record this.

DSC 0084

Which brings me to another theme, that of ambiance in general. I have been listening to what is called ambient music for a while now, with increasing pleasure. Ambient music is not a well defined thing. It can just mean the incorporation of everyday sounds, or the questionable pleasure of background music. I like ambient music best when it distills everyday noise into something exceptional. Examples of that are Richard Skelton’s compositions (that are, in a good sense, very much down to earth), or, a recent discovery for me, Evan Caminiti’s recent music, including his new album Toxic City.

DSC 0102

In photography (or even in art in general) there is the “classical” way to idealize the object — remove it from its context, isolate it, and even alienate it, in order to show a possibly artificially construed intrinsic beauty.

DSC 0164

Ambient art, in contrast, tries to show you how much there is without interference. We just have to look.

DSC 0165

That is a lie, of course. Whenever we show, we select. But selecting what we feel is worth seeing (or hearing) is very different from imposing a verdict on how things are on the viewer (or listener).

DSC 0090

Quartet (DePauw Nature Park IV)

I like the days in late fall when Nature has gone to rest, but winter hasn’t arrived yet.

DSC 7930

We should do the same. Instead of denying the approaching darkness by putting up silly lights on dead trees, we should hesitate and contemplate the state of everything around us.

DSC 8002

So I will conclude this year with posts and images that have more the character of still lives.

DSC 8001

It is time to pay tribute to what we will use for building: tree and stone.

DSC 7996

And to be thankful that time is still passing.

The Unruly

One of the fascinating aspects of the DePauw Nature Park is that one can observe who takes possession of this devastated landscape.
A contender (my favorite) is the Sycamore tree.

DSC 7742

Even while still little, they make gigantic leaves.

DSC 7703

A little older, they begin to show their unruly temperament. This is not a pretty tree for an English Garden. But they show character.

DSC 7617

When mature, they become imposing. Their distinctively peeling bark makes me think of ghosts.

DSC 7658

Right now, they stand mostly isolated, or against the backdrop of the quarry walls.

DSC 7713

But hundreds of little ones are growing, hidden between the shrubs. Let them have this place. They will cause no harm.

DSC 7777

Mutual Resistance (DePauw Nature Park II)

DSC 3635

A while ago, I posted pictures from the DePauw Nature Park. The area is still haunting me, photographically. The place offers a large variety of motives,

DSC 3536

and each image seems to demand its own treatment by choice of format, color space, and other adjustments.

DSC 3563

After several visits, I ended up with a fair amount of decent pictures, without a common theme besides being taken at the same location. It is as if this place attempts to resist any categorization.

DSC 3619

Here I am countering this stubbornness with a reduction to simplicity. The images are all square and black & white.

DSC 3549

But again, the place beats me with views like this, of undecipherable complexity. The dialogue will continue.