Coming to Point Lobos as a photographer, one is always mindful of the images that Edward Weston made here in the 1930s and 1940s. His family still operates a gallery in Carmel, and many prints of his work are on display. His detailed studies of the twisted, parched trunks of dead Cypress trees are inspirational and compelling. For me, they often seem to speak of life and death simultaneously. Motivated by this idea, I made this image of part of a Point Lobos Cypress branch, concentrating on the swirling vitality within this piece of ancient skeletal wood. The swirls ebbed and flowed as the tree flourished, created over the centuries by both the growth of the tree itself and by its stormy seaside environment. The swirls are frozen here by time itself. As Weston did, I work in black and white, simplifying the complex subject and providing a sense of great age.