Drying Mud

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Taken on October 29, 2007 at 12.18pm
Camera: Nikon D40
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1600)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 200

This remains one of my favorite photos. It is at first difficult to discern what the subject is, which is part of the reason for the explicit title. Mud is drying under the hot texas sun in such a way that it cracks and curls up like tree bark.

I took the photo in the middle of the “Grand Canyon of Texas,” also known as Palo Duro canyon. That trip remains one of my most successful days of photography. The landscape is stark and beautiful with an abundance of interesting rock formations and interestingly shaped woodlands. I’m sure several future Road Trip Friday photos will be from Palo Duro.

I like this photo because it maintains it’s orange-red earthy pallet throughout while still having shadow and definition. The out of focus background, or bokeh, fills the top third of the screen with regular curving lines of similarly colored weeds. The weeds and the mud effectively echo one another, though the weeds are more chaotic.

There is a bit of a circle formed by all of the mud with the four centermost pieces lying inside that circle. The circle is broken enough to not appear unnatural, but is solid enough to keep your eyes in the photo. Finally each of the pieces curves differently and its simply strange to look at all the different pieces and see how something as simple as drying mud can make these shapes.