A few days ago I noticed we had a few interesting clouds about sunset time. This time of the year the sun is too far north to really get a good sunset shot. Where we live in the woods, there is just no open area in that direction. Anyway, I thought a shot across the road over the neighbor’s house would show the sort of salmon color with a the trees in silhouettes as a frame. To avoid having the roof of the house in the image I zoomed to somewhere around 400mm and clicked the shutter.

When I got home I connected the camera to the TV so Shirlee could look at the images and to my surprise there was this image of two trees engaged in what looks to be mortal combat!

The first time I had this happen was in 1981 when I was shooting real estate for a monthly magazine cover. I had to shoot a new development and when I got there there really wasn’t anything to photograph. No model homes, no nicely landscaped lots, nothing but the sign out by the road. I decided that the sign would have to do. The name of the development was in a calligraphy style with long rolling scrolls that intertwined for the name. I framed the sign with a couple of low hanging branches, bracketed several shots (I was shooting slide film at the time). When I got the slides back from the lab I discovered that in one or two of the shots I had captured scenes where the overhanging tree branches were entwined mirroring the scrolling name.

Now, the question is, did I visualize these images in my subconscious or was I just lucky? Do we sometimes see images that we are not really aware of in our conscious mind? I really don’t know. What are your thoughts?

Anyway, luck nor not…I like the shot!