Teton Tuesday: Balance and Symmetry

All natural forms, when scrutinized in isolation, can be mesmerizing in their complexity and aesthetic design. Even the most mundane structures can be breathtaking when examined on a scale that reveals the fundamental composition of the form, in all its glorious detail. Under a powerful enough microscope the ant crawling across your kitchen counter becomes a showcase in anatomic efficiency and precision functionality, the dusty lump of sandstone on the side of the road becomes a galaxy of swirling mineral and sedimentary particles that outnumber the stars in the sky. This universal aesthetic that exists within each natural form is enough to fill the halls of every art museum ever built a million times over, but the natural world does not present itself with an appropriate frame and brief informative caption. Instead, we find the innumerable forms that make up the natural world all stacked on top of one another and mushed together, adding exponentially to the complexity and confusion of the physical world around us. It is this interplay between natural forms that at once presents the grand primordial artistry (for lack of a better word) of the universe that has been captivating sentient observers from time immemorial, while hiding from those observers the true level of aesthetic complexity intrinsic in each individual form. There are times, however, when the natural world presents itself in such a complimentary way that the beauty and wonder of the overall composite is perfectly counterbalanced by the detail and form of its constituent parts, such that both macro and micro scales are accentuated in concert. It is moments like this that the visual poetry of the natural world becomes utterly mind-boggling, and a usually dutiful wildlife surveyor is forced to stop what he is doing and snap up some pictures. The following are modest examples of the balance and symmetry between natural forms found throughout Tejon Ranch...



Violet-green swallow, Winter's Ridge.
 

Full moom over Blue Ridge.

Pollinators investigating California's own western thistle (Circium occidentale).

 

Condor snag on Middle Ridge.



Wildflowers enduring the morning fog atop Coon's Leg Ridge.
 

All eyes and ears along Cottonwood Creek.