The Wend And The Weft

Barley, a dog, is photographed in profile, the flow of her fur clearly visible.

Being somewhat nearsighted, I often fail to notice the intricacies of texture until I get very close to something. This gives photography a slightly spooky quality, in that a good camera that’s in focus “notices” more of the texture in a scene than I do when taking the picture. When I first examined this photo at full-screen resolutions, I was transfixed by the delicate currents of Barley’s fur. Observe the gentle trade winds along her cheek, and note where they crash with the flow from around the top of her ear, filling the loose skin of her neck with furry turbulence. Note the downey-fine hairs of her ear, so thin that her pink skin is visible beneath. Appreciate her whiskers, made of sterner stuff than the surrounding fur and jutting from the surface like narrow, tilting obelisks.