Spring Flowers

Spring Flowers
For Sale

Thursday, February 17, 2011

In Rio – twisted, In Friburgo–contorted

This week I am in Rio and my usual Friday My Town Shoot-Out photos focus on the town were I am on Fridays.  But my first couple of photos, taken in Nova Friburgo last week, works perfectly for the Contorted topic.  And then there are a few I took this week in Rio are quite twisted.  
This first photo shows the layer of mud still covering the yard of a house down the street from a major slide.  The house was undamaged, at the least the front where I was standing it looked unscathed but the front yard shows only one small area of hope, of green.   I should go back and see how much green is poking up through the mud. 
The second photo is of only one of the many cars littering this slide area.  Its contorted frame attest to the ride it took down the hill, through homes and apartments, riding a fast current and being battered by large boulders also along for the ride.
definitely contorted.
DSC_7787  DSC_8074
I try to focus on the beauty around me.  Last week I received several comments on framing about the beautiful that surrounds me where I live.  Yes there is beauty around the lagoa, in Ipanema, in the Botanical gardens, but  I would hate to have you come here to visit and during the drive from the airport to Ipanema think, ‘she lied, I want to go home mow’.  Rio is a typical super-city with miles and miles of substandard housing, apartment building and businesses that haven’t been cleaned nor maintained for years, blights.     Over the years I’ve learned or should say, I’ve taught my eye to see only the beauty.  So here we are back on the beautiful side with twisted beauty in Rio.
SAM_0258  SAM_0256  SAM_0261   SAM_0264  SAM_0255  SAM_0271 SAM_0270
I spent some time trying to find the name of these trees but had no success.  They are small trees with smooth multicolored bark.  Camillo thinks they were imported from Asia.  If anyone has a guess let me know.  I have talked before of the Ficus (fig) trees that line the streets of Ipanema, they also are along the lagoa.  Big trees, roots running from high branches down into the ground, not because I find it beautiful but interesting, here is one last twisty photo of those roots as they run unhampered along the ground.
SAM_0275 SAM_0276 SAM_0277

19 comments:

  1. Whoo I love these. I could have kept on shooting for days on this theme. Loved it.
    QMM

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ginger, those twisted, contorted trees are amazing. But it's your first two shots that have tugged at my heart strings. How tragic. I can imagine the lives of so many people being twisted by such a nightmare event.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Ginger....great shots for this theme. The Twisted Trees look a little like the Madrone Tree that I have seen in the Davis Mountains here in Texas. The bark is like the trees you have shown, but I've not seen any as contorted and twisted. Great shootout!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow your photos are so beautiful!! Great capture!
    Seashell

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oooooo! The twisted trees with the stripped bark coloration. They look like paintings! Blow them all up to 2 feet by 4 feet and hang them in a museum.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh man, you have some of the most fabulously twisted trees ever. So perfect for this assignment. They look like they could withstand any manner of flooding.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love the twisted tree! but they can look eerie at night.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Gorgeous trees, Ginger!
    I hope people are recovering from the mudslides alright.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love your "twisted" trees!
    Happy weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Ginger those twisted trees are amazing. So interesting to see the twisted limbs reach here and there. I ditto what Pauline said about the first two photos pulling on the heartstrings. So tragic. Have a great weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh my Ginger...those are stunning shots...I love the ficus trees....wowowowowo!!! Great twisted shots!! Wonderful shootout! Sarah :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Those trees are beautiful. I enjoyed your shoot out.

    ReplyDelete
  13. That old car was diffidently a twisted wreck. I too choose one of my pictures to be twisted tree roots but your beet my mine hands down. Awesome trees!

    ReplyDelete
  14. The first shot is breathtaking....in that there is a patch of green hope and new life in the midst of rubble. Perhaps it is the universes way of telling us that life goes on always.

    You have captured the beauty and the spirit of the trees in a beautiful way Ginger. A couple remind me of a type of Mangrove tree.

    xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  15. That shot of the car is amazing - sad but amazing especially with your description of how it must have gotten so twisted. The shots of the trees are magnificent. Yesterday on a walk I was wishing we had better scenery - but I reminded myself that it's midwinter and there is very little flora or fauna.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Wow - that car is a mess!, love the twisted tree shots!

    ReplyDelete
  17. those trees are great for photo shoots. I could look at them for hours. I like the first two photos. the car shot is interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  18. wow on the twisted trees, i love all things trees and these are beautiful. and certianly fit the twisted part. you did a great job on the framing the photo also

    ReplyDelete
  19. I missed this post when you published it. Last August (2011) when we walked around the lagoa taking photos, I took some photos of those trees for which you don't know the name. The bark is so smooth, with the swirling designs, I thought they almost looked like they were made from marble. Let me know if you ever discover the name of the trees.

    ReplyDelete