From rq. One of my favourite photo themes to do is the art of decay, because there is art in it, and beauty, and it’s a wonderful illustration of the circle of life. rq says: From northern Ontario, so no endemic European species. But still. I especially love the runic nature f the snail/slug/insect tracks on that rock. Like a code to be deciphered, a secret message from molluscans to you. Click for full size.
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Isn’t there a distinction between decay and erosion? Decay is just things eating other things in a way that occurs below our perception. Erosion is things wearing things away below our perception. We have different words for things based on our perception of the world, which is typical human solipsism: prior to Pasteur we were stuck with Aristotle’s notion of decay. And Aristotle probably didn’t deign to notice the little mites and ants that also implement decay.
It’s beautiful transformation either way!
This is my take on it: Decay is more like the slow wearing down into a greater number of pieces -- atoms decay into a greater number of pieces, living things decay into component parts, usually assisted by other living things. Erosion is more like the wearing away of parts, leaving behind emptiness or space where it wasn’t before. Like decay is a deconstruction, whereas erosion is a removal.
Maybe it’s just one of those distinctions where one word mostly applies to animate things while the other to inanimate things. Dunno.
That red leaf is exceptionaly beatutiful.
Decay is an internal process, erosion is an external process. Both lead to catastrophic failure but under erosion the core remains untouched until the whole breaks. A dead tree may stand proudly for years but on finally falling the core is revealed as nothing but pulp. A sea stack erodes until the remaining rock is unable to handle the increased stress.
All the decay I’ve ever seen is swarming with life.
Erosion is just moving bits from one place to another.
The light and textures you’ve captured in the first picture are just incredible. All of the shots are nice, but that first just stands out completely.
Thank you, Saad. :)