Near where my parents live, some giant pine trees grow atop a hill - ancient kings, throned in moss, lording over golden meadows and quiet wind.

I especially like their bark.  It's thick and deeply fissured, brittle and layered like shale.  Up very close, small patches of burnt orange wood and blue lichen are revealed, a tiny world of challenging visual fragments.

Showing every detail in this colourful section of bark would have overcomplicated the frame, reducing emphasis on colour and stagnating the composition.  Instead, I used a large aperture from an oblique angle, allowing details to fade into smooth texture and colours to begin playing in my imagination.

Colourful Bark: Near Princeton, BC, 2007