Portador Tan Bkgnd

Description

Portador is Spanish for “carrier,” which is essentially what a pine cone is. It is a storage and distribution device for the host tree, scattering seeds to plant new trees. In its infancy, a pine cone is a small “bloom” on the tree like what occurs on flowering plants. As the bloom matures, seeds form inside it. When it is fully grown, it dries out and many of the cones fall from the tree, or are carried off by animals, and even by the wind to some extent. As it dries out, the “scales” on the outside of the cone open up to release the stored seeds. Most pine cones have two seeds behind each scale.
The pine cone in this image was only two inches tall. The photograph was a 6-image focus stack to maintain focus from the front to the back of the cone. The flattened image was silhouetted to allow different backgrounds, then a legacy Topaz Labs process was applied to add some character enhancements. The end result is an image that looks like a cross between a photograph and a drawn illustration.