Spirits in the Trees

I spent a long weekend on St. Simons Island, off the coast of Georgia. I'm beginning to fall in love with the place, as it's full of good restaurants, quiet walks, and good photography.

One of the activities I enjoyed yesterday was searching for the tree spirits of the island. The 'spirits' are carvings created in some of the island's massive old oaks by artist Keith Jennings. These commissioned carvings were made to immortalize the sailors who had lost their lives at sea aboard ships that were made from St. Simons oak. The spirits are scattered across the island, and I've brought together four of the five spirits in this piece. The fifth spirit, though very interesting, doesn't photograph so well - it's been nearly engulfed by the tree in the years since Jennings carved it, and looking into the bark you can only just make out the bridge of the nose and the eyes. Surreal, wonderful, but unfortunately difficult to capture in a meaningful way on film. (If anyone's truly interested in seeing it, I'd be happy to post an image in my scraps.)

I'm very interested in thoughts on this one, as I'll probably make it available for print at some point. Even if no one else wants one, I'd rather like to frame this for myself.