Figure 1 – Pine needles shed, Stow, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2017.
You can always learn from nature – and “things are not always as they seem.” I came upon this little bush in the woods the other day and was intrigued photographically by the little dried pine needles glistening in the light. I thought that I was looking at a dying pine tree. But in fact, on closer examination, I realized that what I was seeing were needles being shed from the canopy and getting caught upon the twigs of a leafless shrub. The result is Figure 1.
It is, in fact, the case that pines and other evergreens do participate in the annual shed. It is just that they hold onto a particular crop of needles for several years before dropping them. This autumnal release is part of the forest’s life cycle. I remember the comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell talking about how when you reach the end of your life, it is time to give in to the shedding of leaves. So the pine needles falling to the ground, here caught for a few moments, as forests and trees measure time, is a symbol of the recuring mythic trilogy of birth, death, and resurrection.
There are few places more calming than a pine forest. No better place to walk silently than on the needle carpet. It is certainly the case that there in a pine barren the world is both simple and explained. There we may be closest to the ambiguity of mortality and immortality.Henry David Thoreau remarked that “Ever little pine needle expanded and swelled with sympathy and befriended me.”
Canon T2i with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM at 100 mm, ISO 800 Aperture Priority AE Mode 1/100th sec at f/7.1 with -2 exposure compensation.