Topsy-Turvy

Day 96: Cabin fever is setting in. I am getting tired of photographing "objects" and want to get out in the field to look for interesting stuff. I want birds and wildflowers and lichens and landscapes! Let me get out of the house, please!

Well, it's winter. What can I say? There just aren't any wildflowers, the landscapes of the Pacific Northwest could be shot in color and you'd never know they weren't monochromes, most of the lichens are under snow and the five or six species of birds which are now coming to my feeders have been photographed more times than I can count. However, as I was returning from the obligatory morning cloud shoot, I saw potential in a Douglas Fir cone. I picked it up and had gone no more than a dozen feet farther before deciding it would probably be a dumb thing to photograph and I was just on the edge of tossing it away when the reflection of its parent tree on the hood of the car caught my eye. An idea started to form.

It wasn't easy to position the camera so that the roof of the carport didn't get into the frame and I had to use my elbows for a tripod, but I got the "floating cone" effect I wanted. Now, please bring me some sign of spring before I climb the walls!