Drowned Tree

Drowned Tree, by Mike Jackobo.

A drowned tree in the calm sea after a storm. This storm was pretty bad and it caused a lot of damage in the area. The photos I present in the Photoblog are pretty detached from the actual time they were taken. Therefore, there is no meaning to try to report what took place in terms of damage to property and infrastructure. Instead, I focus on nature and its effects on the landscape.

The storm was so bad that at least a couple more trees were washed ashore like this on that beach. The reason I picked this one was because it was perfectly parallel to the horizon line. The reflection of the white clouds on the water made the drowned tree stand out against the white of the clouds and the sea. Although the sea was pretty calm at that time, I decided to go for a long exposure look. So I used my camera’s long exposure simulation feature to erase any ripples on the water. The trade-off is that due to the small movement of the tree, it is not as sharp as it would look on a single exposure. This is a minor detail though, which doesn’t affect the final result.

The result is a pretty tranquil scene. Nothing of what was happening seems apparent from the photo. Of course a keen observer will understand that something big must have happened. A whole tree cannot just happen to fall into sea. Something has to carry it there. The only element capable of doing that, is water. It was water that took it out of the ground. It was water that carried it to the sea. It is water in where it rests. Now it is a drowned tree.