a graduate student in france recently approached me to participate in her dissertation research. she ended up asking a number of remarkably insightful questions, including a question about how i choose which subject to photograph each day. i answered that the day’s subject must be either beautiful or interesting. today, i need not explain, i give you interesting.

water lily rhizome

vadnais lake, saint paul, mn

p.s.  this particular rhizome was the size of my arm, and each of those brown patches about the size of a human eye. and the clusters of smaller dark circles are where the new growth sprouts. there were dozens of these rhizomes floating on the shore this spring. i am not sure what brought them up from the bottom of the lake.