My first try at a negative of the "clothespin tree" at Mariposa Grove. I remember the morning (mid morning) sun reflecting off the boughs of smaller trees at the bottom. I haven't thought of this negative for some time but I need to make some prints for an "exchange" so I thought I'd give this one a try.
Initially I was disappointed---too much flare and blown highlightes for my tastes. I set it aside and last night while I was reading Kreeft's The Philosophy of Tolkien where he is discussing Platonic Truths and how myths like fairys and hobbits can be illustrative of a Platonic quality (in my case "tree-ness") more accurately than something which exists in time and place or in the imagination. My thoughts flashed to the print I'd made the evening before: Clothespin!

It was quite a revelation!

I rummaged through some prints and there is was ---my "wierdo" failed print of an admittedly wierd looking redwood (if you've ever seen the "Clothespin" you'll know what I mean) with light bouncing off the boughs and a sinister looking blown out highlight was IMHO an example of platonic "tree-ness"---even a "straight" shot of ol' Clothespin (which was my original intention) couldn't have spoken more forcefully of "tree-ness" to me anyway. While Clothespin really exists in space and time, this image came out being something different which, while vaguely resembling ol' Clothespin, looks more like something from another dimension.
I couldn't even have imagined Clothespin looking like this.

Has anything like this happened to anyone else out there?