Looking Down: Steelhead Beach Tryptych by Rich Gibson

Three macro views at Steelhead beach on the Russian River. Taken with the low cost macro rig.

On the left is what is left of moss ? growing on a former gravel screening plant. The center are plants which where growing right up to the gravel screen plant, and on the right some tenacious plants growing on exposed dirt a 100 yards away.

Several different views of the area are here:
gigapan.org/gigapans/tag/steelhead_beach/most_popular/
The left image is from one of the walls of the gravel screening plant-a snapshot of the location is in this gigapan:
gigapan.org/gigapans/23131/
I held the wooden frame up on the wall with one hand, and manuvered the camera and snapped photos with the other hand.

The center image location is snapshotted here:
gigapan.org/gigapans/23025/
it is just to the left of the frame in the 'wall' image)

And the right patch of ground is near the parking lot, 100 yards or so from the gravel plant.

Looking at the juxtaposition of these three images, representing 'nano' climates so near to each other makes me reflect on the immense complexity of our systems - both natural and human created systems.

I think about George Washington Carver, who it was said in an area where 'you saw ten plants he saw a hundred' and he held that visible diversity in mind at the same time that he could see the layers of soil two or three feet down, the different layers, the organisms, the structures which hold moisture and nutrients.

And this diversity is exposed at every layer.