Story behind the image
Many of you have asked me whether I found this subject or created it myself. The answer is that the subject is found and it actually has an interesting story to it.
The structure resembling a crucifix is made up of beech roots exposed above ground some distance from the beech tree itself. Amazingly, the structure was located on a burial mound situated in a small forest.
One day, I was walking through that forest with my camera and came upon the burial mound. I spotted a headstone on the top of the mound and walked up to look at it. Afterwards, I turned around to go back down. In that same moment a ray of light shone through the partial cloud cover and through the crowns of the trees and hit the ground in front of me. And, right there, in the spot light, was this amazing crucifix so beautifully produced by nature. That was a very strong experience and I was completely mesmerized for quite a while.
As it turned out, I could not make a photograph right there and then. The light was too intense for a good image. In addition, the subject was so large that the camera had to be up so high that I could not look at the ground glass. Therefore, I had to return another day. I could hardly find any rest in the few days between the discovery and my return to make the image.
Finally, about a week later, the light conditions became right and I returned. I had to bring a big inverted V-ladder to be able to operate the camera when up high enough to capture the subject. As I had no car, I had to bike a couple of miles from my home to the location. This I did with a large format camera backpack on my back, my huge tripod mounted to the bike and the big and heavy wooden ladder over my shoulder. The people that spotted me on the way must have thought I was crazy, which is probably true. I guess you have to be a little bit crazy to do something like that.
Well, it was all worth the effort. As you can see, I got a beautiful image. This is one of those images where everything felt right and where the process of making it became second nature. On the way back home, the ladder and the equipment did not feel heavy at all. Everything was replaced by an amazing feeling of joy and satisfaction.
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