02-26-08 UPDATE: This image was selected as a finalist in one of six winning categories in the 2008 Appalachian Mountain Photography Contest, sponsored by the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation and the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts.

Ran into this spooky "attack tree", guarding the hiking trail to the summit of Mount Mitchell (off the Blue Ridge Parkway, near Marion, North Carolina). The tree is as it normally appears, except for the right "eye", which I cloned from the left "eye" in PhotoShop Elements. Color image, converted to B&W and other modifications in PhotoShop Elements 5.0. ISO 200. 35mm focal length equivalent of 28mm. Stabilizer setting #2. Other camera settings were: Contrast: +1; Sharpness: 0; Saturation: +1; Noise Reduction: 0.