The Four Ghosts

These four stumps stand the test of time with an estimated age of 2,000 years. Oregon has multiple ghost forests along the coast that were created in some cases due to different events. This is the Neskowin Ghost Forest that came from a forest of Sitka spruce, which is believed to have been created from a slow-moving sand dune nearby thousands of years ago that buried the trees. Not until the late 1990s, after a big winter storm, were some of the remaining stumps visible from all the sand that washed away. Now each year it changes after winter, where only a few might be found to as many as 30 on a good year. I am sure it's only a matter of time before Mother Nature takes all these stumps out to the ocean with no remnants left. 

While on a trip to Alaska this summer, I was standing on a large dune near an ocean inlet. Here it was pointed out by my brother (an environmental science professor) that the trees below were slowly being covered as the dune moved. You could clearly see multiple trees in the process of getting buried. It was interesting to see the early stages of something I photographed that same year, thousands of years after it occurred. As humans, we truly are a blip on the radar of time. 

Camera and Processing:
- Canon R5, RF24-105mm F4 L IS USM, f/16, 2.5 seconds, ISO 100
- Kept with the cool stormy and overcast morning that I felt on this day. Some work to ensure the viewer can see clearly into the reflecting tree stump shadows