When I saw this tree, the first thing that came to mind was 'Tim Burton'. It's beautiful, and creepy all at the same time. Can you see it? Tim Burton has such an intriguing and unique artistic style that stands out from anything else I have ever seen. During my young 'artsy days', while living in Los Angeles - one of the movie capitals of the US, I had a bit of an obsession with his films and art. Oh and Jane's Addiction, too. They were my LA soundtrack. I used to have his book The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy, and Other Stories
on my nightstand at all times. It's quite funny to think about that now, seeing as how I hardly ever watch movies anymore. Wow, it makes me feel old... Anyways, back to this crazy tree.K and I saw it on our family walk Christmas day and literally stopped in our tracks. I think we both did a double take. We had to go and explore it up close. It's as if the tree has armor on it - the whole thing, every single branch is covered. Or as if it is a gigantic tree sized pine cone. I don't know, but I have never seen anything like it. I was half expecting it to come to life and reach out for us. I swear it looks like it's reaching for K in the one picture above. Hmmm, I think I may know where K's crazy imagination comes from...
I couldn't get a picture of the entire tree as it was late in the day and my natural light was fading fast, not to mention I only have a 50mm 1.8 lens (my 1.4 is still boxed up waiting for me to ship it off for repair), which makes it pretty tricky to take photographs of big trees amongst other things. In all of our walks through this area I don't ever remember seeing such a peculiar tree, and believe me this would have stuck out in my head. I wonder if perhaps it only looks like this in the winter? Or maybe it's diseased? I honestly have no clue. Have any of you ever seen such a thing before? We joke that Oregon is home to fairytale forests with it's large amounts of moss, big toadstools and constant greenery. It just looks like what I have always pictured the land of fairies to look like while growing up. This tree seems as though it would belong in a dark forest ruled by a cruel king... or something of that nature. Wow, I do believe my imagination is just running away with me right now!
